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NHK President on the way out

December 2, 2016

By Chris Forrester

NHK’s controversial president, Katsuto Momii, is likely to leave his position in January, according to reports from Tokyo.

NHK’s powerful Board of Governors is said to have “no chance” of securing the 9 votes out of 12 needed to secure his appointment.

Morii has been in hot water since his appointment in January 2014. At the time he said it was difficult for NHK to remain politically neutral when the government of the day might be supporting ‘left’ or ‘right’ issues. It later emerged that he had given instructions to NHK to stick to the government line following the nuclear reactor problems following the tsunami.

He was also formally cautioned over using NHK funds to rent a car for a golfing trip, and in February this year being forced to apologise for a slew of embezzlement charges at a NHK subsidiary.  In 2014 he upset senior staff by demanding that they each write an undated letter of resignation which led to allegations of running the broadcaster as a dictator.

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