NHK WORLD-JAPAN Reviews

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.

I've visited Japan twice and always come home wanting more. Recently discovered the NHK World app for my iPad and for my AppleTV.

From news shows (without any kind of typical western slant) you can keep up on newsworthy events from Japan, Asia, the USA and the rest of the world. Some of the news anchors/reporters don't have the typical western polish, but honestly, I find that very refreshing.

They have many shows designed to inform you about Japanese culture with a heavy emphasis on travel. The iPad app also has access to basic Japanese language learning and lots of fun shows that will introduce you to Japanese culture.

I've used the NHK World News app ever since I discovered the station while I was an exchange student in Germany. I thoroughly enjoy the Japanese perspective on global world events, and in particular, I enjoy the train segments with their beautiful narration and landscapes.

I’ve updated my review to 4 stars since they’ve greatly improved the performance and reliability of NHKWORLDJAPAN ! My only complaint now is that when I manually go to full screen mode, there is a pause button in the center of the screen that won’t go away until I press the closed caption button and press “off”!

NHKWORLDJAPAN was great a few months ago. And then they did a huge update that removed the ability to cast NHKWORLDJAPAN to your TV. They’ve finally brought back some functionality of casting the live streaming. However you are still unable to cast individual shows you want to watch! Please bring back this function because it’s much easier to watch on the TV. NHK is otherwise a wonderful app that shares a lot of interesting news!

Hello. Long time ago I was in Yokosuka Naval Base after a tough day at the office; a Marine CH 46 and ended my tour at Atsugi. I have worked in the private sector as a Project Manager which often involved competing with Japanese firms and have great respect for them. So, make a long story not any longer, why is the vaccination rate in Japan below 20% with the Olympic Games beginning in July and why is there little reporting on NHK ? Are their other interests whose priorities benefit from discouraging the games and why am I not seeing this issue on your news?

I live in America, but I am fascinated by Asian culture. Having this wonderful and mostly positive news source is a great way to start the day in good spirits all for the price of $0. I watch this on my antenna at home, but NHKWORLDJAPAN provides the same channel on the go. All you have to do is download, so there shouldn’t be any hesitation. This is my absolute favorite and I hope it never goes away. Thanks to all the creators for making this happen on the west side of the world!

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.

I would like the video player to be better, the current one takes a long time for the pause screen to disappear, it should hide/show with a tap. I can't seem to add a notification of when a specific program will air any more, please fix. Also, an option to choose the video quality would be good too. ありがとう！😊

The only big complaint is that is missing many of the basic video app 101 functions: you can’t save or bookmark videos. You can’t make an account, so even if you could, say, make a playlist on your phone app it wouldn’t then be accessible in your AppleTV app. It’s just kind of as rudimentary a video app as one could possibly make. It plays videos, that’s it.

Great content, though it would be nice to see more back-catalog stuff made available (like Takeshi Art Beat, say)

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 NHKWORLDJAPAN .

After living in Japan for a year several years ago, I really like watching NHK. The variety of programs is always enjoyable and relaxing. After watching a show, especially travel or food related, I feel much more at peace. Maybe it is the simple English and calming voice, but no matter, I love it.

Great app. I love Japanese food and crafts. NHKWORLDJAPAN and NHK offers some very good documentaries on food and culture.
One suggestion: I think NHKWORLDJAPAN should not start auto playing the current show every time you read the details of a future show and return to the main page.
But, that’s a small nit. NHKWORLDJAPAN is wonderful and the NHK programming content is wonderful.

Streams the live feed well but please have the option to remove the closed captions on Apple TV. Also some areas of the on demand programs such the descriptions of the episodes need to be fixed. You cannot go back to the previous screen as pressing the back button will exit NHKWORLDJAPAN . The only fix is to restart NHKWORLDJAPAN . Please make the on demand programs stream in he as the are quite blurry.

Love NHK World but this new app is not an improvement on the older version. Navigation is not always transparent. For example, it is much harder to find specific videos on demand than before because they are hidden under multiple layers of navigation. Links in NHKWORLDJAPAN sometimes open in the browser rather than in NHKWORLDJAPAN . Needs better user testing to make the content easier to access.

I like NHKWORLDJAPAN but there is an update issue. Now when I open NHKWORLDJAPAN it prompts me to update to the newer version (7.1.8 I believe) but this version requires iOS 10 or later which my iPad doesnt support. So frustrating. I'll continue to use NHKWORLDJAPAN for now hoping they can resolve this but I'm already tiring of being prompted to do something that is not possible.

This has been our go-to app for all things Japanese for years but the latest version release on AppleTV and on the iPhone has for some reason disabled fast forward and rewind. Normally it’s not a problem but is very problematic when watching Sumo where the matches are often so quick that it’s easy to miss the action.

What a great news service and always has interesting specials to keep reminding you of how much variety there is in the world! I never paid my NHK fees while living in Japan (I accidentally answered the door once and my Japanese girlfriend told them I was a tourist lol), so this being a free service internationally is really a treat.

Between NHKWORLDJAPAN and NHK TV (antenna in my area) I have come to absolutely love their programming. It all started for us with their dramatic LIVE helicopter coverage of the Tsunami which devastated the Northeastern coast of Japan.
Now, I’ve slowly beome a fan of Japanese
culture through their wide ranging programming
in English.
Among my favorite programs include a roving narrator whom walks through neighborhoods all over the world and interacts with the inhabitants
in translated English. Kabuki is also a very interesting and finely nuanced art form...and fun to watch. Too much variety to describe here, but
I find myself tuned in more and more these days.
Thank You NHK !

The quality of the streams on the iPhone and Apple TV app are pretty lackluster compared to the 1080p links NHK provides. It would be a much better experience if we could pick the quality or have it automatically selected based on network speed.

I thoroughly enjoy NHK’s unique perspective on news events, and consistent promotion of Japanese culture. The only thing on my wish list for NHKWORLDJAPAN is the ability to share individual stories via text, e-mail, or social media. Currently there is no way to share stories seen in NHKWORLDJAPAN.

New update takes user interface to a new low!
You used to be able to find your programs by a list in alphabetical order, now NHKWORLDJAPAN no longer lists programs to choose from but takes you to their website where user interface is clunky and confusing. Difficult to find programs by topic. Bring back your terrific app and ditch the website where cookies and tracking ads take away from enjoyment

It is always a pleasure to open NHKWORLDJAPAN and explore Japan with news and culture! I love NHKWORLDJAPAN as much as I love the tv channel! I have to thank my mom because she found out about NHK on tv and ran over to my room to show me haha! Sadly the shows are only an hour, but NHKWORLDJAPAN fills my "appetite" for Japan! 😊🇯🇵💕ありがとう~!

Not sure why I am not receiving notifications, especially for earthquakes. When I click on “Notifications” it goes to a blank screen. Perhaps your app needs an update? There have been multiple updates for other ios apps recently but NHK’s last update was 8 months ago.

I can’t get NHKWORLDJAPAN to work on chrome cast for my TV.

Also, there is some glitching on the live stream, it will suddenly stop playing audio. When the audio resumes, the video will rewind a few minutes and start over again.

I love NHK I hope they are able to make NHKWORLDJAPAN even better!

The previous version of NHKWORLDJAPAN worked well with Chromecast; however, the latest update seems to have a bug connecting to the device now. I tried resetting both NHKWORLDJAPAN and my Chromecast and also tried to redownload NHKWORLDJAPAN again on my phone, but none of those efforts worked...