March 31, 2020 Technical Requirements for FM Synchronous Broadcasting

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) today received a partial report on the technical requirements for FM synchronous broadcasting, as part of technical requirements for broadcasting systems (Inquiry no. 2023, September 28, 2006), from the Department on Information and Communications Technology (chaired by Shojiro Nishio, President of Osaka University).

1. Overview

In recent years, as the importance of radio in the event of a disaster has increased, frequency use by FM broadcasting is increasingly congested, and assigning new frequencies to FM broadcasting stations is becoming more and more difficult, due to a rapid increase in community broadcasting stations and the nationwide stationing of the FM relay stations that was institutionalized in April 2014. Amid this situation, it is expected that the spread of broadcast technologies will enable use of the same frequencies, via a precise control of broadcast waves, and eliminate FM broadcast congestion.
The Broadcasting System Subcommittee under the Department on Information and Communications Technology started studying the technical requirements for FM synchronous broadcasting in June last year, and the committee report was compiled in February 2020.
The study results summarized by the committee were considered by the Department on Information and Communications Technology, and today they received a partial report.

2. Future plans

With consideration of this partial report, MIC will develop related regulations.

3. How to obtain further reference information

Reference information on the report can be viewed, and copies handed out, at the Broadcasting Technology Division, Information and Communications Bureau, MIC (the eleventh floor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications).