The tabloid press plays fast and loose with the truth, so anyone who gobbled up last week¡¯s should have added a dash of salt. An unnamed employee told Friday that the prime minister¡¯s office demanded the public broadcaster apologize for questions asked in its interview with Liberal Democratic Party Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on the nightly in-depth news show ¡±.¡± Friday said the incident reinforces the view that under its new chairman, Katsuto Momii, NHK is beholden to the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, since the prime minister¡¯s office got its apology as well as a pledge to root out the person responsible for the faux pas.
The anonymous source said the ¡°atmosphere was tense¡± when Suga showed up for the July 3 interview, which would be broadcast live. ¡°Closeup Gendai¡± provided an outline of the questions beforehand, which is normal. What was not normal, according to the source, was Momii showing up to personally greet the guest and a top NHK executive monitoring the show from a control room.
The interview was conducted by the show¡¯s regular host, , who has a reputation for bluntness. Compared with other NHK on-air talent she is definitely more probing, but compared with interviewers at, say, , with which NHK likes to compare itself, she¡¯s tame. Two topics were discussed: The meetings between Japan and North Korea regarding Japanese abductees, and the Cabinet¡¯s decision to allow Japan¡¯s Self-Defense Forces to participate in collective self-defense activities overseas.
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