Cooperative Television Reception Facility Union

97% of my village in Japan uses an ordinary cable provider with access to dozens of channels. My apartment complex does not. Instead, I am hooked up to something called a テレビ共同受信施設組合 terebi kyoudou jushin shisetsu kumiai, or “Cooperative Television Reception Facility Union”.

Basically, I live in a valley that gets no TV. Some group, unknown to me except for the message I just received from their president, strung some wire up to the top of a mountain and put an antenna up there, which was connected to households around the are to create a Cooperative Television Reception Facility. This is, I guess, a lot cheaper than using the cable provider.

These things are apparently common both in urban and rural Japan. But they are only as good as their reception, and I just got a letter in my mailbox informing me that one of the channels broadcasting from over the bay can no longer be reached, and they have replaced it with another one.

I get a total of 8 TV channels this way, two of which often broadcast the same content. There is no option to buy more. This is the situation for many people in Japan, which is why the policies of the big channels, for example Fuji TV’s pro-Korean bias, are very important.

Posted: August 13th, 2011 | Japan 2 Comments »

2 Comments on “Cooperative Television Reception Facility Union”

  1. 1 Todd said at 5:44 am on August 13th, 2011:

    Hi there–found you via an Amazon.com review and was surprised at your username. My wife’s family is Tenri. Are you part of the religion or did you just add that because of your religious studies?

    Enjoying the writing, keep up the good work!

  2. 2 Nozomi said at 3:41 am on August 17th, 2011:

    hi, I found your blog through couch surfing website since you are the only one in Imari.(I also live in Imari at the moment.)I enjoyed reading your blog. thank you!