By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU STAFF WRITER
Longtime viewers of local Japanese news programming may have been caught off-guard this week, when it was announced that the decades-old broadcast in the U.S. will soon come to an end.
Fujisankei Communications International, Inc. has been airing programs and features from Japan in Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York and other cities across the U.S. since the 1980s, including “News Catch,” currently seen weekday mornings at 7 a.m. on local station KXLA Channel 44.
At the end of Tuesday’s newscast, an announcement was made that broadcasting in the U.S. will end March 31. Viewers were thanked for their 44 years of support, but did not give a reason for discontinuing the programs.
In addition to news from the station in Japan, the broadcasts included a segment from a crew based in New York, as well as a regular pets feature.
Viewers were invited to keep up on news from Japan via the FNN Prime Online website, www.fnn.jp.
On its home website, FCI, a division of Japan’s Fuji TV, says it was established “to serve as a global bridge between Japan and rest of the world,” with its headquarters in New York and operations in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, London and Paris. FCI claims viewership of some 650,000 Japanese nationals living in the U.S. and Europe, delivering news and information content via over-the-air broadcast as well as through cable and satellite TV.
The FCI decision leaves Southern California without a daily broadcast TV in Japanese for the first time since the 1970s, when United Programming Corporation began providing a regular schedule of programming tailored to the Japanese and Nikkei communities, including episodic dramas, food and variety shows, and the annual “Kohaku Uta Gassen” music spectacular held every New Year’s Eve.
After changing its name to United Television Broadcasting Hollywood, the station and Asahi Homecast aired community-based programs and shows from Japan, and helped to maintain a cultural connection for immigrants and those with an interest in all things Japanese.
When the nationally mandated switch to all-digital broadcasting of terrestrial television happened in 2009, UTB found a new home on a local “sub-channel” and was able to offer round-the-clock programming, for free, over the airwaves.
However, declining advertising revenues and lingering confusion around the switch to digital TV forced UTB to abandon its 24-hour broadcast schedule in 2016, moving to air only 90 minutes of content on Sunday evenings.
UTB ceased operations altogether in 2018, but the Sunday evening telecasts have continued, shown on KXLA by Japan Hollywood Network. Programs currently running are the popular “Bananaman’s Gotcha Gourmet!” and the drama “Reboot,” in addition to the local news magazine “SoCal Japan.”
NHK World Japan, the English-language station from Japan’s national public broadcaster NHK, continues its round-the-clock schedule on KCET Ch. 28.3 without interruption. The majority of its news and programs are tailored for an audience outside of Japan.