BRASILIA (Kyodo) Japan and Brazil signed official documents Thursday on Brazil's adoption of Japanese digital television standards, with Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Heizo Takenaka attending the signing ceremony at the presidential palace in Brasilia.
Japan's digital technology, the ISDB-T format, will be adopted outside Japan for the first time. Japan's format moves toward becoming a global standard with the decision by the largest economic power in Latin America to adopt it.
The Japanese government has expressed its intention to cooperate with Brazil in terms of digital broadcasting by conducting joint research and developing human resources.
Japan hopes the accord with Brazil will help strengthen long-term relations with the country, which has abundant natural resources and bright prospects for economic development, according to Japanese officials.
There are currently three types of digital television standards -- the Japanese format, the U.S. standard and the European format. Malaysia and Singapore have decided to adopt the European format.
Brazil had initially aimed to develop its own format, but later decided to adopt one of the existing standards.
With the U.S. standard said to have poor reception, Japan and Europe vied to have Brazil adopt their respective standards.