How Good Is TV In Japan?

Japan TV is very good indeed, particularly when viewed from the lens of significant cultural difference. Television in Japan is one of the oldest video signals ever to be broadcast, and offers a rich tapestry of film to entertain and delight native and foreign viewers alike. Though many notions, ideas and concepts may appear strange to Western viewers, Japanese television programming is Westernized to a degree that, even though a language barrier exists, universal themes will be recognizable and enjoyed by all and sundry. Japan TV offers all the riches of Western television viewing, along with exciting cultural differences and a fine sense of history and tradition.

Contemporary Japanese culture presents a hybrid of an ancient Asiatic culture and that of the 20th century Western world, and Japan TV follows this hybrid model. There is a harmonious marriage of respect for tradition, elders, history and formality existing alongside the creative inventiveness embraced by post-WWII generations newly exposed to Western culture and ideas.

Whereas feudal Japan presented as a stoic, tradition-bound culture with little or no forward progress or class mobility, post-war Japan achieved a synthesis of this stoicism and the young, energetic and achieving culture of the industrialized United States and Europe. As a result, Japan TV took on this character, and has existed for close to one hundred years as a sometimes-confusing marriage of respect for tradition and inventive young people, class stagnation meeting with economic progress and opportunity, comedy offsetting dramatic tragedy.

There is some universality to programming scheduling on Japan TV. For example, the early hours of the mornings are almost exclusively devoted to news programs and shows, both national and international. Then, much like in the United States, programming in the late mornings focuses on capturing an audience of domestics who are completing or who have completed housework and chores.

This tends towards more entertaining program, alongside lighter news shows. Child-oriented programming starts when most children are returning home from schooling, and gives way to further news and world-events programming before and just after the dinner-hours, catering to adults returning home from work and enjoying their evening meals.

Later programming mirrors prime-time programming in the West, with comedies, dramas and feature-length films prevailing. In this, Japan TV is accessible to Western viewers by following similar patterns designed to mirror the behaviors and schedules exhibited by most consumers.