The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo has been reluctant to give Japan's public broadcaster NHK an interview with Ambassador Caroline Kennedy due to controversial remarks about Japanese history made by a member of its management body, sources close to the matter said Friday.
A public relations official at NHK said the broadcaster withholds comment "on the processes of news coverage and program production." An embassy official said no comments can be made about the envoy's schedule.
According to the sources, NHK asked the embassy to give it an interview with Kennedy shortly after she took up her post in Tokyo last Nov. 15 and talks went on as the embassy relayed its hope the interview should appear on NHK's "Close-up Gendai" television news show.