It’s been a while since I last posted about the NHK Central Broadcasting Program Council. Since the chairperson was absent today, I served as the meeting’s moderator. It was explained that strengthening the dissemination of local information is one of the key priorities regarding domestic programming for the second half of fiscal year 2020.Programs such as “NHK Regional Stations” and “Archipelago News,” which feature content produced by local broadcasters on weekday mornings, have already launched. I believe that programs from local stations, in particular, should be distributed nationwide and worldwide online as well, so I expressed my hope that they be made available on demand.

Now, since this was my final comment as the host of the show, I decided to highlight three programs that hadn’t been discussed yet, grouping them under the theme “Following the Professional’s Perspective.”The three shows are “Manben Neo,” “100 Cameras: Namba Grand Kagetsu,” and “A New Sensation! Peek-a-Boo Variety Show: Mekami-sama Knows.”

“Mangaben Neo” is a show where Naoki Urasawa converses with manga artists while watching footage of them drawing, filmed from a fixed camera angle. I felt that revealing the entire creative process of a professional artist and objectively analyzing it—with the artist themselves included—is the best way to learn. It’s also a show brimming with Mr. Urasawa’s passion and love for passing on manga—a cultural treasure Japan boasts to the world—to the next generation. The format—using a split screen to constantly show the artist at work while displaying necessary information in another window—is fascinating, and I’d love to see this approach applied not only to manga but also to other creative fields like comedy and music!

“100 Cameras: Namba Grand Kagetsu” is a program that depicts the hard work of those involved in the theater’s reopening. It features 100 fixed cameras installed at Namba Grand Kagetsu—which boasts 365 performances a year and an annual attendance of 1 million people—as the venue resumed operations after a four-month hiatus.Although it was described as the “Naniwa Human-Interest Theater,” it was precisely because the cameras were hidden that the participants’ true selves were captured. I could see the subtle consideration each person showed toward one another and found it fascinating to observe the action from multiple perspectives simultaneously. Whether it’s comedy, music, or theater, live entertainment has been one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.Theaters are still only allowed to fill about half their capacity, and not only comedians and performers but everyone involved—including lighting and set crews—is still struggling. Seeing them fight on with such cheerfulness and resilience in the midst of this provided valuable insight into how we should support our culture.