Free radio in Japan: The mini FM boom
10 February 2009 | Posted by Jeffrey Barke | No comments
Excerpt from http://www.translocal.jp/non-japanese/1993radiotext.html:
"Free radio in Japan: The mini FM boom"
Tetsuo Kogawa
Originally published in Neil Strauss (ed.) Radiotext(e): A special issue of Semiotext(e), pp. 90-96, New York, 1993
The first radio broadcasts in Japan began in 1924, with television broadcasts following in 1953. In 1969, over 90 percent of Japanese households owned a black-and-white television set; by 1977, 97.7 percent had a color set. At the same time, most middle-class Japanese had at least two personal radio-cassette players. Thus, a complete system connecting the population's personal milieu with governmental or corporate media institutions had been established. If these media outlets provided diverse programs which met people's specific interests, this system could act as an effective network in which people could find indirect self-expression. However, in contrast to the affluence of radio and television sets, there is a poverty of variety and quality in programming. Even in Tokyo, there are only two FM and six AM channels, including three public broadcasting stations operated by NHK, the national Japanese broadcasting company. (The Far East Network, or FEN—a special broadcast service for U.S. troops stationed in East Asia—is also on the AM dial.)
Even the few private commercial stations are indirectly controlled by the government through the restriction of licenses and the influence of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in the appointment of station executives. Although hundreds of institutions—including advertising agencies and political and religious organizations—have continued to apply to the Ministry since 1945, only a few AM licenses have been granted. In spite of a number of available bands on the radio spectrum, no AM or FM station was approved in Tokyo for a period of ten years, between 1975 and 1985, a period of increasing cultural diversity in the context of economic development. This abnormal situation fits well with the government's policies: those private stations already operating are willing to submit to government supervision in order to monopolize the market and avoid competition with newcomers. Thus the government, headed by the Liberal Democratic party, has balked at dismantling this intervention in the private sector.
