Traveller From Tokyo by Morris

Author:Morris [Morris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Ethnic Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136890772
Google: ucddAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-12-16T04:56:28+00:00

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RADIO BROADCASTING IN JAPAN IS UNDER THE CONTROL OF A SINGLE organization, the Broadcasting Corporation of Japan. This huge corporation is by way of being supervised by the Ministry of Communications, but actually all broadcasting is now controlled by the Information Bureau, which also performs die functions of a propaganda ministry. AH programmes are subject to strict censorship and nothing that might harm the interests of the country and its people is allowed to go on the air. Even before the outbreak of war it was impossible to broadcast the proceedings of the Diet or any political speeches without authorization.

The first radio programme in Japan was broadcast in 1925, since when the service has been enormously extended. In 1936, the latest date for which reliable information is available, the number of licence holders was stated to have reached 2,776,189, which figure represents roughly forty per thousand of the population. At the present day the percentage must be very much higher for there is now hardly a household that does not own a set. The programmes start at six o'clock in the morning and continue until eleven at night, and during the whole of these seventeen hours nearly all the radio sets in die country are kept going at full blast. Radio is, in fact, one of the major curses of living in Japan. There is no escape from the noise; it assaults one from all directions. Moreover, the ordinary Japanese-made receiving set is extremely cheap (it costs on die average about the equivalent of thirty shillings), which means that the valves are of very poor quality, causing much distortion.

Nor is this all. Little attention has hitherto been paid to microphone technique, with the result that nearly every talk opens with a burst of thunder, the speaker clearing his throat. This is followed by frequent coughing and the crackle of pages being turned over. The daily programme, at the time of my departure, included at least three or four patriotic speeches by army officers, the majority of whom, to judge from the volume and quality of the sound, seemed to be addressing the microphone as though it were a body of troops being rallied to one last effort. I must say, however, that nobody seemed to pay much attention to these speeches; there is a limit to what even the Japanese will stand.

The first item in the daily programme consists of radio physical exercises, and this feature is repeated every few hours until the stations shut down at night. Finding that the desired reaction was not produced, the government started a campaign to popularize these exercises. Orders were issued that commercial firms should encourage their employees to participate by giving them the opportunity to do so during office hours, and I remember an occasion when going into a large office at about two o'clock one afternoon I found every member of the staff, from the manager downward, squatting in front of his desk in the " knees bend " position.

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