October 23, 2023 Report from the Radio Regulatory Council on the Re-licensing of Terrestrial Basic Broadcasting Stations in 2023

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) today sent an inquiry to the Radio Regulatory Council (chaired by SASASE Iwao, Professor Emeritus at Keio University) regarding the re-licensing of terrestrial basic broadcasting stations and received a report to the effect that it is appropriate to grant re-licenses. Based on this report, MIC will grant re-licenses on Wednesday, November 1 of this year.

1. Overview

The current licenses for terrestrial basic broadcasting stations (excluding terrestrial basic broadcasting stations that conduct community broadcasting) will expire on Tuesday, October 31 of this year. Therefore, MIC accepted applications for re-licensing from Monday, May 1 through Monday, July 31 of this year and received applications from 195 applicants, including the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) and commercial basic terrestrial broadcasting service providers.
The Radio Regulatory Council must be consulted for the re-licensing of basic terrestrial broadcasting stations in accordance with the provisions of Article 99-11, Paragraph 1, Item 4 of the Radio Act (Act No. 131 of 1950). After screening the applications, MIC informed the Council that the applications were found to comply with the relevant laws and regulations. The Council then reported that it is appropriate to grant the re-licenses.

2. Subject of inquiry

The applicants subject to the inquiry are shown below. In addition to the applicants listed, MIC will also grant a re-license to one ultra-short-wave character multiplex broadcast operator on Wednesday, November 1 of this year.

• Japan Broadcasting Corporation
• Private terrestrial basic broadcasting service providers
  - Medium wave broadcasters (in single operation): 16 companies*
  - Shortwave broadcasting operator: One company
  - Ultrashortwave broadcasting operator: 50 companies
  - Television broadcasters (in single operation): 96 companies
  - Medium wave and television broadcasting operator (in concurrent operation): 31 companies*

*Of the companies that applied for the re-licensing of terrestrial basic broadcasting stations, 13 medium wave (AM) broadcasting operators and medium wave and television broadcasting operators have applied for special measures for the suspension of AM station operations. The AM stations for which it is appropriate to apply the special measures are shown in the attachment.

3. Future plans

The re-licenses will be issued accordingly.

*The published material is in Japanese only.