When I first arrived in Japan, I could not understand anything at all. However, just as one of my friend from England said that Japanese TV programs seemed to be very low budget programs, I should agree with that. Some programs were worthless to watch like junk. Well, my impression about the contents of general tv programs were eating, taking bath (hotsprings), travel, laughing just for laughing’s sake, etc.

NHK in English

The only channel worthy to watch was NHK. They put things like real world. This particular program adds value to watch TV. Real life stories, economics, etc. were very helpful. But they are all based on evolution based thoughts. The Department of Education with current politics were tied to only show along with evolution theory as norm. Therefore, you only have to have one thought without any other opinions. So the average Japanese will live with this unified thought all through out their life span. No other options were allowed in education in Japan. That is so sad to know. It is pitiful that they do not allow other opinions openly. Therefore, even NHK’s perspectives were biased.

Above NHK English site, you can learn Japanese from there. The URL for this site is: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

My son likes to watch quiz programs or knowledge based programs on a wide variety of subjects.

Well, after Samuel started to do homeschooling, we decided not to connect to the TV and since then, we did not watch TV at all. It has been over 4 years now without TV. You can tell the difference in our family life where we have more conversation and productive activities like playing the guitar and the piano as we sing together as a famliy. Occasionally we watch movies. That is about it.

Much of children’s animation also lack good morality. This was one of the reasons why I disconnected TV at home. They seem funny, but lots of times, morally unsound. This creates the pitfall of watching animation in Japan. There were many times where I should have told Samuel where I stood on various issues and values as we watched TV together. Maybe this could be true in any TV programs around the world.

Anyways, TV programs in Japan generally put me off many times. So you can not expect much from Japanese TV in my opinion. We need to have more Christian influence on media with proper perspectives and values.

Abraham Lee@Gospel House