From Beijing Radio and Moscow Radio to radio broadcasts in Latin America
The author recalls that more than 40 years ago, after late-night Japanese broadcasts had ended, a Japanese radio program called "Beijing Broadcasting" was broadcast in the early hours of the morning. Tetsuya Hirahara, who lives in Japan and was interviewed for this article, said that since 1970 he has been engrossed in receiving Japanese programs broadcast on shortwave from overseas, starting with Japanese programs on Moscow Broadcasting and Beijing Broadcasting, and then becoming interested in broadcasts from Latin America as well.
"There was no Internet in those days, so radio broadcasts were the best way to hear what was happening locally and the music that was popular there. In Latin America in particular, the radio stations were privately run and had low output, so I had fun trying to receive the signals using the receiver my parents bought me."
Hirahara was also interested in local commercials. "I imagined that in the future, when I travel to Peru, I would like to visit the restaurants and hotels I saw in the commercials and drink the beer they advertised. I also found it interesting that Ajinomoto commercials were broadcast on the radio in Peru."
One of the reasons why Hirahara majored in Spanish at university was that he had become fascinated with Latin America through the radio. Then, in 1980, he spent two months touring the countries from Mexico to Peru on his graduation trip.
"When I actually went there, I was left with the strong impression that there is a huge gap between rich and poor in Latin America. It is something that you cannot understand unless you see it with your own eyes. It was very shocking. The true nature of that gap never gets conveyed on the radio."
After that, Hirahara joined an electric power company and went on many business trips to Latin America. "My life had always been centered around work, but somewhere along the way I started researching Japanese radio broadcasting in Latin America. When I visited Brazil for research, I actually met an announcer from an old (Japanese) radio program. Even when I asked him various questions about those times, he told me, 'It was a long time ago, so my memory has faded. You (Hirahara) know more than I do,'" he said with a laugh.
He also shared the following story about what first got him so deeply involved in research:
"More than 20 years ago, in 2000, I was invited by an acquaintance to attend a training seminar on radio broadcasting organized by the Asian Broadcasting Research Association, a group of avid radio fans. Part of the agenda at the time was a lecture introducing the current state of local Japanese-language broadcasting around the world. One of the materials handed out there was an article on the brief history of Japanese-language broadcasting in Brazil. I had secretly thought that I knew more about the broadcasting situation in Latin America than anyone else, but I had no idea that the article that was handed out even existed, and I will never forget the shock I felt when I thought, 'Wow, there's a material like this out there?' I thought there must be more interesting materials if I looked, but that was when my luck ran out, and I found myself bogged down in a world of boredom. I had actually found a treasure trove that no one had yet touched."
From satellite television broadcasting to the Internet era
Thus, Hirahara continued his research into Japanese-language radio in Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. When asked about the programs in a country that made a particularly strong impression on him, he replied, "The Brazilian programs were broadcast early in the morning. There were two reasons for this: many Japanese people were farmers or worked in agricultural markets, so they got up early in the morning. The other reason was that if a Japanese program was broadcast in between Portuguese programs (the main local language), there was a risk that the local people who had been listening to the program until then would turn the dial to another station, so it was more convenient for the broadcasting station to broadcast a Japanese program early in the morning and then start the regular Portuguese program after the Japanese program was finished."
He also reflected on a Japanese radio program that left an impression on him:
"There used to be a popular radio program in Brazil called 'Japanese Programmer.' It was broadcast for two hours on Saturday nights Japan time. It was a music program mainly featuring Japanese enka. The host was a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian announcer named Taniji, and his partner was a Brazilian station manager called Adhemar, which was very memorable. This is because Adhemar, who used to work in a Japanese-Brazilian store, would speak in Japanese such as, 'Adhemar-san (referring to himself), you're a little senile. Pumpkin head' and 'Hello, turtle, turtle-san.'"
However, of the Japanese radio broadcasts that were loved by many Japanese people in Latin America, only one bilingual broadcast with Portuguese remains in Brazil.
"As the Japanese-Brazilian generations have progressed to the fourth and fifth generation, the proportion of people who need information in Japanese is decreasing. Also, when NHK satellite broadcasting began on television in the 1990s, people who wanted to learn about Japan switched to television, which were major factors (in the decline of Japanese-language radio). Furthermore, with the development of the Internet, it has become easy to access information in Japanese. As a result, a practical issue is that Japanese-language radio is beginning to struggle to attract sponsors."
Currently writing about prewar Japanese radio in Hawaii
Hirahara mentioned "campus radio" as a distinctive trend in Japanese radio broadcasting in the United States. "Campus radio is a radio station run by a university, and since the 1990s, there has been an increase in Japanese speakers appearing on the radio in Japanese from Japanese universities around the United States."
As of 2022, Japanese radio broadcasts remain in North America in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, and in the United States, a Japanese university professor in Illinois continues to broadcast in Japanese on his campus radio. And Hawaii's official Japanese radio station, KZOO, is still broadcasting 24 hours a day, making it something of an exception amid the decline of Japanese radio.
Hirahara, who has been engaged in research in this way, has published four self-published books: "Japanese Time Brazil Edition," "Japanese Time Latin America Edition," "Japanese Time Peru Edition," and "Japanese Time North America Edition." He says that he is currently working on a prewar edition of Japanese radio broadcasts in Hawaii. He describes research on Japanese radio broadcasts overseas as his life's work.
"Radio broadcasts are very difficult to research because there are often no recordings left. That's because they disappear once the broadcast has finished. On the other hand, Japanese-language newspapers overseas often remain in print, so they can be researched. So when I research Japanese-language radio, I often look through Japanese-language newspapers held by the National Diet Library or overseas university libraries. The problem is that even if we know that Japanese-language radio programs existed, there are many cases where we are not able to get to the point of listening to the actual audio. Furthermore, something that I myself feel is lacking is the lack of digging deep into the significance of local Japanese-language broadcasting in Japanese communities. I am hoping that someone will come along and research this point in more depth."
Hirahara's "Japan Time: Pre-match Battle in Hawaii" is currently being written with the aim of completing it by the end of 2022.
*Hirahara's website: Japan Time - Radio program for the Japanese community (History of Japanese language broadcasting)
© 2022 Keiko Fukuda
