NHK to Promote Inoue to President Next Month

Tokyo, Dec. 8 (Jiji Press)–Japan Broadcasting Corp., or NHK, will promote Executive Vice President Tatsuhiko Inoue, 68, to president to succeed Nobuo Inaba, 75, whose term expires next month, the Board of Governors of the public broadcaster said Monday. Inoue will serve a three-year term from Jan. 25. He will be the first NHK leader in about 18 years who is from the broadcaster. People from outside NHK have served as president since Genichi Hashimoto quit in 2008. The board is the highest decision-making body of the broadcaster and has the authority to name the president of NHK. Inoue’s promotion was supported by nine board members and opposed by three. “We thought it would be good for a person who has an understanding of NHK’s current situation” to become new president, Nobuyuki Koga, who chairs the board, told a press conference Monday, citing the reason for picking Inoue. Inoue said in a statement that he is resolved to do his best to work on challenges such as promoting human resources development and preventing a drop in viewer fee revenue. After entering NHK in 1980, Inoue served in posts including chief of its political news desk and president of Broadcasting Satellite System Corp., an NHK subsidiary. He assumed the current post in February 2023. While Katsuji Ebisawa, who was also from NHK, and Hashimoto were in office as president, scandals involving NHK workers erupted and the broadcaster faced criticisms over its size. All six people who served as president after Hashimoto,including Inaba, were business leaders, and they accelerated reforms such as lowering NHK’s viewer fees and scaling down its satellite broadcasting business. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]