The earliest of Japanese history in media can be traced to newspapers in the Meiji period, the first being the Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser. It was founded in 1861 in Nagasaki. The telegraph and telephone following suit. And was followed by the broadcast industry which has been dominated by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation since its founding in 1925. In the postwar period, NHK’s budget and operations were under the administration of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.This was changed with the Broadcasting Law of 1950, which provides for independent management and programming by NHK.
TV broadcasting then began in 1953, with color televisions introduced in 1960. From free channels, cable television was introduced in 1969. In 1978 an experimental satellite with 2 color television channels was launched. Subsequently, operational satellites for television use were launched between 1984 and 1990. TV viewing has become a part of daily life that by 1987, 99 percent of Japan’s households had color TV sets and the average family reportedly had its set on, for at least 5 hours per day. Starting in 1987, NHK began full-scale experimental broadcasting on two channels using satellite-to-audience signals. With this, TV service was made available in remote and mountainous areas of the country that earlier could only get poor reception. The new system also provided round-the-clock, nonstop service. In the late 80s, NHK operated 2 public television and 3 radio networks, producing about 1,700 programs every week. Its education programs were broadcast through more than 6 thousand TV stations and nearly 300 AM and more than 500 FM radio transmitting stations. Comprehensive service in twenty-one languages was made available throughout the world.
Rapid improvements, innovations, and diversification in communications technology, including the introduction of optical fiber cables, communications satellites, and fax machines, led to the rapid growth of the communications industry in the 1980s. Government owned NTTC had dominated the communications industry until April 1985, when new common carriers were permitted to enter the field. Also NTT Worldwide Telecommunications Corp lost its monopoly hold on international communications activities in 1989, when Nihon Kokusai Tsushin and other private overseas communications firms began its operations.
Japan has been the world leader in telecommunications in the 1980s, but this position that has been challenged by the United States’ dot-com industry in the 1990s and the emerging tiger states in Asia. While the United States is leading in digital content, South Korea is leading in broadband access, India is leading in software, and Taiwan is leading in research and development.
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