Affected by the spread of coronavirus infection, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games was postponed for one year and held from July to August 2021. As the fourth state of emergency was issued in Tokyo right before the opening, most of the Olympic events were conducted without spectators. A public opinion survey carried out prior to the Olympics found that people's views were divided as to the pros and cons of hosting the Olympics despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and such situation was reflected in media coverage. Meanwhile, there were some people suggesting, especially on the internet, that “no doubt the media would be covering nothing but the Olympics once it started” and that “the media would probably make an about-face.” Then, how did the media actually report on “the Olympics under the COVID-19 pandemic”? Were there cases that coronavirus-related news was eclipsed by the Olympic coverage? To investigate them, the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute conducted two quantitative surveys: (1) analysis of eight news programs using the metadata of these TV shows and (2) analysis of front pages of three national newspapers. The analyses finds that the timing of starting reporting Olympics-related news was much earlier, compared to the previous two Olympic Games. It is also revealed that the amount of coronavirus-related reporting increased, especially on television, and replaced Olympic news to be treated as the lead story from the mid of the events due to the fifth wave of COVID-19, but in terms of the total amount of reporting throughout the Olympic Games, the Olympic coverage marked the highest.

View full abstract

This paper reports the results of the 2021 Nationwide Survey on Changes in the Japanese Language. Based on the results, the author points out the following. - In terms of “ra nuki kotoba” (‘ra ’-dropped words, using “reru” instead of “rareru”), a clear divide was found in the percentages of those who said, “I use this form myself,” depending on words: while “nerenai” (can't sleep), “korenai” (can't come), “mirenai” (can't see), “okirenai” (can't get up), and “taberenai” (can't eat) were used by the majority, “kazoerenai” (can't count) and “tashikamerenai” (can't confirm) were used by less than half of the respondents. Meanwhile, there was little difference in the percentages of those feeling “it is alright to use this form in a formal setting” for each item. By age group, the younger, the higher percentage of people said, “I use this form myself,” but there was no such unidirectional trend in the percentages of those thinking “it is alright to use this form in a formal setting.” Instead, it was observed those in their 50s were most conservative. By region, conservatism in the Kanto region was found. As for the use of “ra nuki kotoba” in broadcasting, the opinion “it is better not to use” remains to be the mainstream even now, but it is not necessarily an overwhelming proportion, compared to previous surveys. - Regarding whether to include the ‘sa ’ for “na(sa)sōda” (does not seem), the age differences were small while a rough regional difference (East Japan vs West Japan) was observed.

View full abstract

In August 2021, NHK conducted an online workshop for employees in order to enhance their understanding of war experience drawings and paintings (hereinafter “war experience pictures”) that had been collected by NHK's local stations. This paper reports the gist of presentations delivered by three experts at the workshop. Tanaka Yoshiaki, Professor, the School of Letters, Senshu University, who is specialized in history, stated that war experience pictures have the power to break stereotypical images of wars and often present memories that cannot be put into words, based on his own experience of collecting war experience pictures of Great Tokyo Air Raids as a museum curator. He also pointed out the importance of “getting to know the war experience through pictures” as finished works show they went through changes from rough sketches. After explaining how humans cognize pictures, Saito Aya, Associate Professor, Institute of Philosophy & Human Values, Kyoto University of the Arts, stated that war experience pictures have the power to make people share images as well as time and space through words added to the pictures, that viewers' complementary imagination generates a sense of reality or a feeling of hopelessness, and that the process of drawing itself involves a flow of time in which one faces the deceased as well as oneself. Ohsawa Torao, Senior Researcher, Center for Arts and Culture, NLI Research Institute, who supports local communities' cultural activities said that “sites” portrayed in those pictures connect the memories of people, that “small memories” obscured by “the grand history” are kept there, and that individual memories of “each person,” not of “everyone,” are depicted. He pointed out that becoming engaged with them is a responsibility of local public broadcasters. Based on their presentations, the author discusses the relationship between the mass media and “small memories” as well as “sites and memories.”

View full abstract