JAPANESE
ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE
The main problem with the BBC Japanese transmissions to Japan, as
with those in Mandarin to Northern China prior to the dramatic events of
May and June in Peking, has been lack of awareness of the new, greatly
strengthened signals from the Hongkong Relay Station opened in September
1987. Audience Research in Japan carried out as recently as May 1988
indicated that although the number of teenage listeners to the BBC
Japanese Service has been steadily declining over the past few years as
the craze for DX (Shortwave) listening waned, there remains a small
but loyal audience among professionals, company employees and students.
Given the undoubted and growing need for such people to learn more about
the outside world than they are at present able to do from their own
media, and the enormous interest in learning English, there is clearly
a real possibility of building up that audience, provided that the product
is right and that the people who might want it are aware that it is
on the market.
Consequently, in something of a new departure in research terms,
the BBC Far Eastern Service and the Audience Research Department launched
a major research project in Japan in March 1989 designed to provide
information about the potential audience for a BBC Japanese Service,
the ideal programme format and the most efficient and cost-effective
means of publicising the BBC Japanese Service and its new-improved
signal in Japan.
The conclusions of this research project are expected to be
available in another couple of months.
POSTCRIPT
It should be noted that the BBC Japanese Service plays a useful
and valuable role as an "invisible exporter" of BBC-trained Japanese journalists. For many years now, eight out of the nine Japanese members
of the Service have been secondees from leading Japanese Television
and Radio Stations, and they all spend 2 to 3 years living and working
in Britain before returning to senior posts in their parent companies.
At last count, six former members of the BBC Japanese Service were on postings as foreign correspondents in various parts of the world.
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