This paper reports the results of the Public Opinion Survey on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games—a survey series the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has conducted seven times since 2016. The survey immediately after the events shows that more than 70% of the respondents “enjoyed” the events, but in terms of holding the events during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 50% were unhappy about the fact the Games took place while the public was asked to exercise self‐restraint. Before the Games, many people expected their economic effects and were eager to demonstrate Japan’s traditional culture to visitors from overseas, but the pandemic made it impossible. Those who regarded the 2020 Tokyo Games as the “Recovery Olympics” from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake were a little under 50% before the events. In the survey after the Games, those who felt the events served well for the recovery were less than 30%. Meanwhile, the majority of people enjoyed watching the Games on television, and many people, especially the youths, said their interest in sports had increased—these results indicate that holding the Games was highly meaningful purely as sporting events. The Games also triggered a greater public awareness that “initiatives to making more diverse society should be promoted” and a better understanding of people with disabilities. On the other hand, many respondents feel that their own understanding of diversity is not progressing enough and the current situation in Japan is insufficient. Moreover, the percentage of those feeling that barrier-free is not progressing in terms of environment and people’s attitudes is higher among respondents who frequently contact with persons with disabilities. To overcome these problems, persistent awareness-building efforts shall be further needed even after the Games, and more than 60% of respondents hope to see the media cover more sports played by athletes with impairments.

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With the use of ICT in Japanese schools advancing to full scale, there is a growing need for utilizing broadcasting archives, which are stored at broadcasting stations in enormous numbers, for school lessons and other educational purposes. Focusing on the issues concerning rights processing, which poses a challenge for the provision of broadcasting archives from broadcasters and other organizations to educational institutions, this paper presents the author's proposal for the new regulation of right restrictions (copyright limitations/exceptions) of the Copyright Act and examines the legitimacy of the proposal. The author proposes to redefine broadcasting archives that are difficult to process rights and almost unavailable in the general market as “out-of-commerce” and make them the subject to copyright limitations on the condition that they are used for educational purposes such as school lessons and distributed only to limited users. For the confirmation of its legitimacy, the author applied the three-step test, an internationally used standard. The paper also presents the effects and issues of the Extended Collective License (ECL). Even if the proposal is adopted, other issues will remain, including the network environment at schools and the authentication system. Nevertheless, the author argues that once these challenges are overcome, it will be highly possible for broadcasting archives to contribute to a number of societal needs.

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The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has regularly conducted a series of nationwide surveys aimed at schools or individual teachers since 1950 to study the ongoing situations of the media environment at schools as well as to see the whole picture of the usage of NHK’s educational services such as broadcasting, the internet, and events. We surveyed primary school teachers in AY2021, as the “GIGA School Concept,” which implements “one-to-one device” and “high-speed internet connection” in an integrated manner, started on a full scale at primary and junior high schools across Japan. Compared to the survey result in AY2018, when the “GIGA School Concept” was yet to be introduced, it is found that teachers with access to tablet computers at school have considerably increased (from 63% to 96%), along with the increase in those with access to the internet (from 87% to 98%). More than 90% of teachers in total let pupils use personal computers or tablet devices distributed to each (“GIGA School devices”) in the classroom. Of those letting pupils use “GIGA School devices,” about 70% do so frequently, more than three or four times a week, and almost half of them let the pupils take the devices home for home learning. As for how media materials are used in the classroom, there has been a drastic increase in the percentage of teachers using “NHK for School” (those who used NHK’s school broadcasts and/or NHK Digital Curriculum”), from 67% in AY2018 to 88%. Some teacher let the pupils use “digital textbooks for learners” along with “GIGA School devices” in the classroom, and a few let them use it for home learning. We also asked teachers how they support pupils’ home learning. When asked about what kind of support they have been providing, while many (60% to 70%) cited “commercially available workbooks and handouts” and “print-version textbooks,” some provided support pupils receive at home using the internet, such as “the NHK for School website and official application” and “simultaneous interactive online teaching” for lessons and home learning, which are equipped with video conferencing, material sharing, and communication functions, were used by 86% of the teachers. The implementation of the “GIGA School Concept” has largely changed the media environment in the classroom. If existing issues including the disparity in the media environment at home are solved in the near future, online learning at home will advance and change the nature and forms of home learning. It is necessary to consider the total design of learning support, taking into account both school and home learning including the usage of “digital textbooks for learners” and “learning support tools.”

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