NHK's Board of Governors on Dec. 20 appointed Katsuto Momii, former president of Nihon Unisys, a major computer and communication systems and software company, as the next president of Japan's public broadcast organization. His three-year term starts Jan. 25.
How to cope with the rapidly changing environment caused by digital innovations is a big challenge for NHK. But the most important task for Momii will be to keep a distance from politics and to refrain from intervening in NHK's right to freedom of expression as a news organization. He is close to business leaders who have strong ties with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Momii reportedly supports the state secrets law, which severely limits ordinary citizens' and journalists' access to government information, as well as Abe's ideas for revising the Constitution.