Abstract
This essay discussed the documentary TV programs on the history of science and technology produced by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). An outline is first given of the role played by directors in the production of TV programs inferring therefrom that the quality of a program depends on the director's knowledge, particular plans and personality. He then focuses o the development that the director's intentions underlying the documentaries have undergone to find out that from 1960 to 1967 directors tried to put forward positive evaluations of science and technology, from 1967 to 1971 they not only purported to educate but also to warn and even launched accusations, from 1971 to 1978 they delved into the social significance of science and technology, and from 1978 to 1988 they laid emphasis on entertaining rather than on evaluation. Finally, the author touches on the problem of training directors to enable them to produce science and technology documentary TV programs.
