100 Years of NHK: the Enduring Role of Public Media in National Life

Few modern institutions have had more lasting influence on Japan’s political, social and cultural life than NHK, the national public broadcaster. The most trusted source of news and information, NHK’s entertainment and cultural content also play a vital role in shaping and reflecting social norms, cultural standards and narratives of national identity. This talk examines how and why the public service broadcaster has evolved over a century of political, social and technological upheaval. Comparison is made to the BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation), which shares almost identical organizational structures, but which has grown to play an utterly different role in national life.

Henry Laurence is a professor and Chair of the Department of Government and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College, where he also served as Director of the Asian Studies Program.  His research interests include media and political economy and he is the author of The Politics of Public Broadcasting in Britain and Japan: the BBC and NHK Compared (Routledge, 2023).
Dr. Laurence received a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University and a BA from Oriel College, Oxford University.  He has held Research Associate positions at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at Oxford University, the Institute for Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo, and the U.S - Japan Relations Program at Harvard University. He has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Digital Media and Politics and is the author of Money Rules: the New Politics of Finance in Britain and Japan  (Cornell University Press 2001).