NHK gets tough
Japan’s national broadcaster NHK is starting to put the screws to TV owners who are refusing to pay mandatory subscription fees. Until now, collectors would go to households and companies to request payment, but NHK rarely took any legal action if someone absolutely refused to pay. This seems to be changing.
According to a news report, NHK is planning to take 47 unlucky households and one company in Tokyo to court if they do not pay up by the end of October.
The 47 households and one company are among 700 cases that NHK had randomly selected from 190,000 households and businesses in Tokyo that have refused to pay subscription fees. NHK officials tried to persuade the 700 to make payment, but the 47 households and one company have refused to comply.
Sounds like a kind of lottery in reverse.
That reminds me I need to put a sign on my door. “All individuals who come to my door and have a reception device (lungs) for oxygen will have to pay a free for my service.” The fee is 10,000yen a visit, non-NHK employees are exempt.
October 12th, 2006 at 9:41 pmHah, my girlfriend just recently told me that she refused to pay the tax when she lived in Tokyo. But instead of lying and saying she didn’t have a tv, she just said I refuse to pay. She thought it was just some business man trying to rip her off (instead of the government).
She said their method of catching people was to send a really old man to collect the NHK tax during the evening hours. They figured a tenant would not refuse an old person who knocked on their door. Well it worked on her, she could never refuse the old man when he came to the door at 9pm.
In a small apartment that might be all he needs to see if she has a tv in her room. Eventually she ended up paying for a whole years worth of fees at once. It kind of sucks because its like paying for cable twice even if you don’t watch the channel.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:44 amIt’s the RIAA of Japan!
Well, not exactly analogous, but the litigation at least sounds similar :>
October 13th, 2006 at 9:02 amWhy don’t they just take this money out of the taxes that we pay? Is because the 7 people in Japan who do not own a TV would feel cheated? Britain has state TV, don’t they just pay for it with tax money?
I know I know. It’s Japanese bureaucracy. 40 years ago some committee decided to go door to door and no one can change it now.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:17 amNo, they make you pay a yearly fee too. Only difference is that the UK system has sharper teeth. They also work on the assumption that you DO have a TV (or ANY apparatus “capable of receiving a TV signal” - doesn’t have to be working, either) and it’s up to you to prove that you don’t. To this end, they’re allowed by law to come in and search your home.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:41 amIf you’re taken to court, and still don’t pay up, you’re liable to a £1,000 fine. Don’t pay that, and you’re looking at a jail sentence.
Sounds really harsh, but in practise there’s less opposition in Britain to paying for the BBC than there is in Japan to paying for NHK, not because of the threat of jailtime, but because the BBC is actually worth watching. Sometimes it’s the only thing worth watching.
Golly! that’s really generous of them overoften.
“It is free if you are over 75, half-price if you are registered blind.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/licencefee/
(i’ll stay with my Billy Boots comics):neutral:
October 13th, 2006 at 12:30 pmThey’re all heart, aren’t they.
October 13th, 2006 at 12:34 pmEveryone hates the stench from the corruption scandal that hit NHK a while back, but by and large their programming has more redemptive content than most of the commercial stuff. Still, there is an instinctive desire to punish them for the grand larceny. We used to pay freely, but I don’t know what we’ll do next time they come around. Probably just pay.
Husband to wife (whispered): “Shhh… Throw money at him, maybe he’ll go away.”
October 13th, 2006 at 12:43 pmso is this a case of blind justice or blind injustice?.
October 13th, 2006 at 12:59 pmmy chum robin argues that they can still listen to the telly..but I believe that this is very mean spirited on the part of the beeb. (and a bad example to other public broadcasting entities) such as NHK.
Remora, I though you said it was half price if you were blind. That’s just, isn’t it?
October 13th, 2006 at 1:06 pmNo.- I don’t think so.
It’s uncharitable.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:17 pm