Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
Right now, the undisputed top of Japan's commercial TV ratings belongs to the Fuji TV network.
"The second place holders may change from season to season, but Fuji's hold on number one has been unshakable," is how critic Makoto Kanazawa puts it.
So if that's the case, Shukan Taishu (Aug 22-29) wants to know, then how come the unchallenged "king" of commercial TV is suddenly under assault from all quarters?
"The troubles appear to have spread to the sponsors too," says a source at an advertising agency. "We heard one manufacturer of sundries remark, 'When we think of the money we get from the people who buy our products and giving it to Fuji TV, we start to have second thoughts.'"
When sponsors start to talk this way about a TV network, there's got to something behind it.
The hassles seem to have begun when Saki Kumagai, the defensive fielder of the women's World Cup champion Nadeshiko Japan, was mentioned in the course of Fuji broadcast, over remarks made via Twitter.
"The Twitter posting made Ms Kumagai appear critical of the team's manager, and for damage control she had to call a press conference," said the aforementioned source. "It came out that the source of the leak worked part time for Fuji TV."
But that was just an opening jab compared to what transpired next.
Actor Sosuke Takaoka tweeted his disdain for Fuji's decision to air Korean dramas as part of its afternoon programming.
"I'm not watching Channel 8 (Fuji) any more," he wrote. "They're behaving like they're a Korean network. We Japanese want traditional Japanese programs. Good-bye!"
Takaoka's tweet had immediate and drastic repercussions: he and his booking agency wound up going their separate ways; now some are saying Takaoka's acting career may be finished.
Meanwhile, neurosurgeon Kenichiro Mogi asked, "So what's wrong with Korean dramas?" and comic entertainer Atsushi Tamura rose to Fuji's defense on his new program.
Then entertainer Ryo Fukawa and Diet members Satsuki Katayama leaped into the debate, further feeding the uproar. Tabloid Nikkan Gendai, a rival of Yukan Fuji, which belongs to the same media group as Fuji TV, lambasted the FNS 27 Hour charity marathon broadcast for wasting 500 million yen and squandering electric power.
"The whole affair flared up over a period of just 10 days," says a TV producer involved with Fuji. "It looks like some people were determined to go after Fuji TV right from the start. Rumors were also floating around that Fuji TV was on the receiving end of resentment that the other networks feel toward Fuji's longrunning dominance of viewer ratings."
But Shukan Taishu thinks there may have been other factors as well.
"The timing of those two programs may have had something to do with it, but the fact is, we've also got plenty of internal disagreements," says a source at Fuji TV. "After all, the other networks were also broadcasting and consuming electricity too.
"But Takaoka's Twitter message may have pushed things over the edge," he adds.
As a showbiz reporter points out, when comparing the on-air time of Korean programs with other channels, Fuji's heavier dependence becomes clear.
"Over the past month, NHK broadcast Korean programs for four hours; TV Tokyo 12 hours and TBS 20 hours. At 40 hours, Fuji was head and shoulders above the rest," the reporter says.
The fact is, Japan's other networks are also clamoring for more Korean contents, which are cheap to procure and which gain high audience ratings.
While difficult to prove, a source in the music industry believes another factor in the current wave of attacks may be due to the company's relatively high (30%) foreign shareholder participation, which has generated rumors that to the effect that "Fuji has been hijacked by foreign countries."
Fuji has maintained its top position in the ratings for eight consecutive years, and despite the recent uproar, the situation isn't likely to change anytime soon. The current "bashing," if anything, may be indicative of the frustration felt by the other players over their inability to depose the king.
© Japan Today
28 Comments
Login to comment
sillygirl
anyway you look at it all japanese tv is the pits. glad i have a sattelite dish!!!!
calm down
no better nor worse than TV from any other country
johninnaha
Japanese TV is FAR worse than TV in any other country I've watched TV at.
Why they have it blaring on in hospitals, dentists' waiting rooms, I just cannot understand.
If you prefer quality to quantity, try British TV.
Excellent comedy, documentaries, dramas.
nath
Japan is the land of the blasting box called tv. But then again, lots of things are loud here. The whole country is wired with huge megaphones, even up in remote mountains. Annoying people at 5 in the morning screaming to buy your junk, those damn laundry pole trucks and yakiimo are just as bad. I wear Airport Head phones.
calm down
just an opinion Johninnaha....20 or 30 years ago yes,for British TV..but no,not now..Australian TV is the pits !!
Oracle
Fuji TV seems to be finding itself in the position of Tiger Woods. From hugely popular to pariah overnight, as if a dam of held back rage had just been dynamited. Well, if you believe this article's exaggerations and I don't.
Well, those dramas are popular buddy. Maybe instead of bellyaching you should take notes?
Japanese people are voting with their remote control. What is the problem? Jealousy?
mikihouse
FUJI network major stcokholders are Koreans and thus the programming is quite biased to Korean network. They cut the awarding ceremonies of Mao Asada, the women's soccer team, Miki Ando and other Japanese but have a detailed, complete airing of Kim Yuna winning the Olypics among others. Hell they even called the recent soccer game held in Japan as Korean-Japan football game in contrast to other networks calling it Japan-Korean football. This was later corrected when Japan won the game easily and they changed it to Japan-Korean match.
Anyway, Japanese TV programming is rubbish, predictable, boring and nauseating.
Only a few good ones worth watching.
garymalmgren
Anyoneout there except me like, NANDEMO KANTEI DAN?
mikihouse
got from the net:
Fuji TV indeed has a Youtube channel since 2006. Any idiot can enter "fuji tv" from the search bar and arrive there.The comments left behind by angry internet users ignited by the controversial tweet by Takaoka has now reached 140k in less than a week. Which is more than 20,000 criticisms a day.
Sousuke Takaoka got fired not from Fuji TV, but from his Agency which was probably pressured by the largest Media Conglomerate in Japan, Fuji Media Holdings Inc. which has over 160 media companies under its control. He was fired for criticizing that there are too many Korean contents on Fuji TV. Many Japanese feel this is in violation of his freedom of speech.
Foreigners hold 28.59% of Fuji Media Holdings stock. This can be verified on 証券保管振替機構, a Japanese Stock Exchange Agency. This subject has also been taken up by some of the Japanese media shortly after Takaoka Twitter Controversy.The Japanese broadcasting law states that the foreign investment must be below 20% for a public TV station. What Fuji has done is, they have made about 9.9% of these shares non-voting stocks and so has slipped thru the loophole in the law. Source: ttp://www.c-direct.ne.jp/publi...
This is not only highly shady, but by this method, even if the actual shares held by the foreigners rise to, say, 60%, theoretically Fuji can still claim to be within the limits of law, and enjoy broadcasting rights. They need to simply make 40% of the shares non-voting. But just because the shares are non-voting, can you honestly believe large shareholders have no influence over the company? Atleast the Japanese public do not think so.
carrotpeas is right that Fuji does not disclose the nationality of the foreign shareholders. It may or may not be Korean. Personally, I believe this is not a matter of nationality, but the very fact that a large portion of the stocks of a huge media company such as Fuji is in the hands of foreign investors is a matter of national security. One needs only to consider the huge influence media giant has over the Japanese public thru tv, newspaper, radio and magazine.
Fuji TV held monopoly broadcasting rights over World Figure Skating Championships for the last several years. They did not broadcast in live the awards ceremonies and national anthems when the Japanese skaters won the championship (several times in fact). This in itself maybe ok. But then, they did showed it in full, ceremony and anthem and all, when a Korean figure skater won the championship.And recently Fuji again cut the live coverage of the ceremony and anthem when the Japanese team won the FIFA Women's World Cup. Needless to say, many people in Japan were watching it live, wanting to share the moment of joy.
There are countless videos now uploaded in Youtube that show that Fuji has been using subliminal effects (manipulating the subconscious of the viewers) to promote Korean contents. These evidences show that in programs that have nothing to do with Korea, they slip in images of kpop star, put in words like "love korea" in the background, and use korean national flag designs in the background. The thing to note is that it's all in the background and only after careful observation can you make them out to be such. Google subliminal effect for details. It's been banned by law btw.Oracle
mikihouseAug. 21, 2011 - 09:07PM JST
Seems like this started out okay, then slipped into tinfoil hat time concerning Mao and subliminal messages.
mikihouse
sorry, the post wasn't mine, it was from the net. My partner here just showed it to me after watching the demonstration held today in Odaiba wherein there were about 6 to 8,000 attendants against Fuji programming...well it will not be shown on TV but its you tube
Laguna
"Lost Boys" (and if you haven't seen it, you should) had a memorable quote: "I just like to read the T.V. Guide. Read the T.V. Guide, you don't need a TV"
Mah, I read articles like this on occasion - takes me thirty seconds. Then I don't need to watch TV.
lincolnman
My Japanese friends tell me this is a huge issue on the net - that "foreigners" - which translates to South Koreans in this instance - have managed to purchase shares and allegedly influence the programming of Fuji TV.
Quite surprisingly, it appears this conspiracy theory seems to be bringing the latent nationalism out in even normally rationale Japanese.....one of my friends is hardly right wing but swears to the truthfullness of this allegation, and has turned quite anti-Korean in her views......
It will be interesting to see where this goes.......
Foxie
They should just air Korean TV here, at least that is watchable and fun.
Virtuoso
The Fuji-Sankei group that operates Fuji TV also publishes the Sankei Shimbun, which considerably to the right of the Yomiuri (for example it regularly features columns by Tokyo Gov. Ishihara). There would seem to be something contradictory about activities that wean Japanese away from their own nationalistic sentiments. But if money is the sole incentive, I suppose they can justify anything.
papigiulio
why so many people detest Japanese television is beyond me. Maybe Dutch television is very boring? Either way I watch both Japanese and Korean television both have very funny variety programs. Maybe it depends on the hour one is tuned into. I was a week off and tried watching tv during lunch and it is utter and utter garbage. God bless we have discoverychannel and some movie channels as well :)
Foxie
Papiguilio, Dutch TV got stuck in the past. Pippi Langkous, Home and Away, Married with children, Little house on the prairie, the Bold and the Beautiful. Are they for real? They aired the same programs 25 years ago. Maybe you are right, compared to Dutch TV, Japanese TV is fantastic.
johninnaha
Calm down -
No, British TV is still producing excellent programs.
As for Aussie TV, it is bad.
I was there in January and was NOT impressed by the TV.
The Bushwalking and a lot of the food/wine was excellent, though.
As for those who like Japanese TV - please go ahead and watch it.
Whatever floats your boat!
Kwaabish
Rather impressive turnout on the 21st considering the general topic being relatively blacked out from the regular media in Japan. Would also be interesting to see if their push against major sponsors (e.g., boycott of Kao products) of programmes at Fuji would have effect.
Either way, perhaps the protestors should push lawmakers to pass a law like the one that South Korea has that would limit the amount of permitted foreign produced content/programmes broadcast over terrestrial TV.
issa1
fear of Japanese and real and true, koreanos and Chinese control much pachinko gambling. Japan gets into a dilemma where the politically correct protest in favor of Japan seen as crime.Japanese not be fooled by the mass media it is already sold.
mikihouse
The police report of the total number of demonstrators during the Aug 21 rally against Fuji programming was 38,000 plus. Fuji TV reported 400 people. And yes, it is a total news black out.
Raymasaki
well as Fuji TV it should mainly be Japanese. but i don't see a big deal in having a Korean channel. here in America we have JPTV,chinese channel & philipino BUT you have to pay extra for them. i had AZN channel & liked it. as an American who likes/studies other cultures i wish we had a Korean channel. ive seen many Good korean dramas & Movies.
warnerbro
So we are to infer that because Fuji TV is owned 28% by "foreigners," therefore Fuji TV intentionally introduces Korean programs and subliminal messages? And this is proven by youtube videos? There are also videos on Youtube that prove that Michael Jackson is alive. The fact is that Japanese entertainment media cannot compete with Korean entertainment media at this point. Japanese media can offer nothing but programs that show celebrities dining at various restaurants and "comedy"/variety programs featuring throngs of vulgar, talentless, squawking "talentos" performing routines that fail to reach middle school maturity. It doesn't help that Japan is having trouble competing with Korea in other industries, as well. Another issue is that Fuji at a relatively early stage aired some content that expressed concern about radiation levels and potential consequences for children. Since the majority is now opposed to nuclear power, the industry will use Korea and the ever present Japanese xenophobia (there's also plenty of that in Korea, mind you.) as a foil by which to stick Fuji TV.
kurisupisu
Brickbat? Is this word still in the English language?
SquidBert
It's in the merriam webster online dictionary at least.
At the end it says first recorded use 1579.
I think we can add, Last recorded use 2011 (JapanTimes)
Ivan Coughanoffalot
There was a wonderful show on TV yesterday, where a young man cut a cucumber up whilst five people stood astonished by the miracle before their eyes.
It was truly awe-inspiring: a man, with a knife, cutting up cucumber - which he then used in a recipe which always includes cucumber.
Then everybody shouted "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?"
I could scarcely control my primitive urges. It made Saving Private Ryan look like a piece of toilet paper. And nobody was Korean.
This is why Japanese TV is the best in the world and anyone who thinks otherwise is a racist who hates Japan.
nath
Expect more of that after Shimada Shinsuke left.
Or we might get more Tokoro George, Takeshi, Sanma, etc daily. Hey, Tanoshin-kun might get his big break now. Future of J-TV is looking bright ..... NOT.
Got forbid Patrick Haran truly goes main-stream.
ironchef
ah, glad to see far-right nationalism and foreign genocidal-ish hatred is still alive and well in Japan!
Japan, xenophobia ganbarre!!