NHK's president told a Diet committee he did not know a contractor with a history of aggressive debt collection had been rehired to resume doorstep fee-collection visits, as a lawmaker demanded the broadcaster review every contract.
Kenichiro Saito, a member of the House of Councillors, pressed NHK Chairman Tatsuhiko Inoue at the upper house internal affairs committee on Tuesday, ABEMA Times reported. NHK ended visits by outside contractors in fiscal 2023. It restarted them in September on a trial basis.
Among the contractors was a firm that had previously caused problems, including heavy-handed collection tactics. Saito questioned Inoue on who was responsible and what NHK would do.
A different approach, or the same one?
NHK says the new visits are announced in writing beforehand and represent a different approach from the old doorstep sales. Saito rejected that. "Do viewers think this is a different kind of visit? What is different? Nothing has changed," he said. "And you are using the same contractors as before."
NHK told the Diet under a previous chairman that ending visits had cut sales costs and reduced complaints. Saito pointed to the contradiction of resuming them within the same year.
Inoue said the contractors were chosen against selection criteria with outside lawyers involved. He apologized for the process. "Given what happened in the past, we reflect that we lacked care in the decision process," he said.
The firm will no longer make direct face-to-face visits, Inoue said. It will focus on non-face-to-face work such as written notices.
"All the personal data NHK holds"
Saito kept pressing. He asked whether Inoue had known from the start about the recontracting of the problem company. Prompted by the committee chairman, Inoue said he had heard about the selection process but had not known this particular contractor would be chosen.
Saito said NHK was handing over all the personal information it holds to the contractor. He called for a fresh investigation into whether other contractors, including ones that changed their names after complaints, had similar histories.
He also said NHK's management committee, which should oversee such matters, was not functioning. Saito said he would submit a written question to the House of Councillors and share the issue with the government.