Токай Телевидение: История и скандалы японского телеканала

Japanese television station

Tokai Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd. (THK, 東海テレビ放送株式会社, often called Tokai TV (東海テレビ)) is a Japanese television station affiliated with Fuji News Network (FNN) and Fuji Network System (FNS), based in Aichi Prefecture, Gifu Prefecture, and Mie Prefecture. It is also known as Tokai Hoso Kaikan.

In 1957, around the application for the third television broadcasting licence in the Tokai region seven companies, namely Tokai Broadcasting, Tokai TV, Tokai Radio, Kinki Tokai Broadcasting, Nippon Color TV, Nagoya Broadcasting and Nippon Television launched their bids. Then, the four companies of Tokai Broadcasting, Tokai TV, Tokai Radio, and Kinki Tokai Broadcasting merged into "New Tokai Television" and obtained a TV broadcasting license on October 22, 1957. exposing the difficulties faced by the news department of Tokai TV, which aroused huge repercussions from the TV industry. This documentary was later adapted into a movie. In 2020, Tokai TV and three other private TV stations in Nagoya (CBC TV, Chukyo TV and TV Aichi) jointly created the on demand video service Locipo, trying to open up the Internet field.

Since 1997, the eve of the 40th anniversary of broadcasting, Tokai TV has launched a new mascot every 10 years. In 1997, the mascot "ヤッパくん" launched by Tokai TV Station was set as an alien who liked to watch the programs of Tokai TV station. After returning to the presenter appearing in the studio, the host of Bessatsu! P Can TV and Tokai TV host Tomoyuki Fukushima quickly apologized. Afterwards, according to the investigation results of the channel, the cause of the accident was that the subtitle producers of the program accidentally broadcast the subtitle screen for practice. Because this incident happened about five months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident (cesium is a radioactive pollutant), it caused a public outcry. After the incident, Tokai TV received a large number of calls and emails from viewers to protest. Iwate Governor Tatsumoto also protested against Tokai TV on behalf of the Iwate government. The Japan Commercial Broadcasters Union issued a written serious warning to Tokai TV for this incident. After the incident, Tokai TV stopped broadcasting the program. The then president Shuo Asano also publicly apologized on the TV program and the Iwate Prefectural Government. Tokai TV also set up a countermeasure headquarters to comprehensively verify the cause of the accident and prevent similar incidents from happening again. On August 30, Tokai TV broadcast a one hour inspection program, introducing the cause and process of the accident, and apologized to the audience and agricultural workers in Iwate Prefecture. After the incident, Tokai Television also established a regeneration committee to rebuild broadcasting ethics and launch activities to support the Tohoku region.