In addition to experiencing the many great attractions, cultural activities, restaurants, bars and all the rest as an expat in Japan, you’ll also want some downtime. What better way to relax than a few hours in the evening in front of the TV? Whether you’re looking for your favourite English-language channels you enjoyed back home or would like to see what Japanese TV has to offer, here’s a brief rundown of TV in Japan and what channels you can find.

TV in Japan

TV is very popular in Japan and most households own a set. Japanese TV broadcasting began back in 1939, with digital replacing analogue in 2011. There are now many options to watch TV in the country, with both digital cable and satellite TV available, and both national and regional networks showing hundreds of programs. However, you will need to buy a license from the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). This costs around 14,000 yen a year for terrestrial channels, or around 24,000 yen a year if you also have satellite TV.

Terrestrial TV in Japan

There are eight terrestrial TV channels in Japan. NHK, the national public broadcaster, runs two channels. NHK General, or NHK-G (channel 1) shows a range of popular programs including news and sports broadcasts, while NHK Educational, or NHK-E (channel 2) focuses more on cultural output, documentaries, and children’s shows.

Additionally, there are six Tokyo-based commercial terrestrial networks:

  • Nippon TV (channel 4) – shows news, sports, drama, entertainment, animation, and movies
  • TV Asahi (channel 5) – broadcasts a range of programs including entertainment, sports, drama, and some foreign films dubbed into Japanese
  • TBS (channel 6) – shows a variety of programs, including the internationally-renowned Takeshi’s Castle gameshow
  • TV Tokyo (channel 7) – programs include anime, news, documentaries, drama, and travel programs
  • Fuji TV (channel 8) – output includes drama, news, game shows, talk shows, and reality shows
  • Tokyo MX (channel 9) – only serves the Tokyo area and nearby prefectures. Shows include news, sports, and anime

Channel 3 on terrestrial Japanese TV is TV Kanagawa, a local network broadcasting exclusively to the Kanagawa prefecture and parts of the Greater Tokyo Area.

The main digital cable provider in Japan is J:COM.

Satellite TV in Japan

If you want extra TV coverage in Japan, including access to many overseas channels, you can pay for a satellite TV subscription. You will need a satellite dish, plus a box tuner if you don’t have a Japanese model TV. Satellite providers in Japan include:

  • Sky PerfectTV – contains over 200 channels including around 60 English-language channels such as Disney and CNN
  • WOWOW – pay-per view service with three channels – prime (entertainment), live (sports), and cinema (movies)

English-language TV Streaming Options

Streaming services give viewers the option to access TV (and cinema) content through the Internet, meaning that they can watch on smart TVs, laptops, or even mobile phones. Many major TV networks across the world now have their own streaming platforms that allow you to watch programs whenever you like, however you will need a Virtual Private Network (VPN) subscription to unblock content for overseas services such as BBC iPlayer or NBC.

The most popular international streaming platforms in Japan include:

Tomotaka NAGATA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons