Contact NHK WORLD JAPAN Support

I loved the NHK world app before the recent Nov 2019 update. Now I can’t access all the different programming I would regularly watch. I’ve clicked through all the different pages to try to find them to no avail. If it’s there it’s poorly designed and not intuitive. And if they have disappeared why? Yes it’s great now it’s available in 17 languages and it’s nice there’s access to radio/podcast but when you can’t watch the amazing shows like CoreKyoto, design talks plus, fashion express... what’s the point? Please correct this, as I am a total fan of your impeccable programming and usually only access thru the app.

NHK is first and foremost a new channel. For the most part 30 minutes of each hour is dedicating news. It gets very repetitive and the news is obviously left biased. Since the COVID outbreak most of the news is dedicated to that. Many of the news short features are recycled from news of previous weeks and months. The rest of the programming is interesting. The travel programs in particular are great to watch. Medical Frontiers is another great show. Many of the shows suffer from over eager hosts who are distracting from the subject at hand. It’s too bad. One show in particular, Science View has fantastic subject matter but the way the dialogue is scripted turns the experience negative. I wonder if the hosts are reading off cue cards or are in separate locations ? It’s very distracting. Despite my negativity, it’s worth a download and try it for yourself.

Overall I like it. A few things bug me, though. 1) I’d prefer fewer voiceovers and more subtitles. I’m trying to learn Japanese, and their limited number of English talent is, well, annoying and distracting. At least give an option to hear the original Japanese or dubbed. 2) They don’t seem to have enough bandwidth dedicated to the service. I don’t have problems streaming any services except NHK World. It’s not all the time, but it’s enough to be annoying. 3) Ditch the hourly news programs. I like the news programs, but they’re on far too frequently. 4) I’d like to see more programming that’s available on NHK in Japan. I get that this is free and in Japan you’re supposed to pay, but I’d like to see more programming that isn’t all about the tourism. Don’t get me wrong — as an outsider that’s also incredibly valuable. But would love to see more dramas that are being viewed in Japan.