Japanese Public Broadcasting: Construction of Publics and Identity in Virtual Space

In 2008, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation, or Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai ) launched their online distribution platform NHK On Demand (NOD). This service is land-locked within the geographical borders of Japan. Through an investigation of corporate and government documents and content analysis, I find that NHK’s move into virtual space presents an inward, domestic-focused version of Japanese nationhood and national identity that parallels the Japanese government’s global strategy for national branding, namely the Cool Japan initiative (soft power policy). In doing so, I argue that NHK—and by extension the state—cleaves their public in two: a domestic public based in Japan and a global public including overseas Japanese nationals, diaspora Japanese, and non-citizens. Virtual space becomes the stage for conflicting conceptualizations of Japanese identity through the creation of different publics and different goals for each.