The NNN Document Chronicles, 1970-2019

NNN Document, a documentary program produced by 29 companies affiliated with Nippon Television Network Corporation, is aired late Sunday nights. For half a century since its 1970 launch, the program has been addressing the issues and challenges facing contemporary Japan, focusing on people and the way they live. It is the longest-running documentary series ever produced by a Japanese network, whether it be a commercial station or public broadcaster NHK. It seems almost a miracle that the program, with its low-key, no-nonsense approach, has survived this long in the highly competitive television industry.

NNN Document has been diligently reaching its audience every week for the past five decades, becoming a significant presence in the history of television and the history of contemporary Japan. The program has produced at least 2,500 episodes so far. The episodes include many notable and outstanding works, such as Asu o tsukame Takashi-kun: 4,745 nichi no kiroku (Seize tomorrow, Takashi-kun: a record of 4,745 days), the first Japanese television episode to win an international Emmy Award. The program has covered a wide variety of topics, including war and peace, pollution and the environment, disasters and accidents, disabilities and welfare, and education and families.

NNN Document is also a valuable record of regional journalism and local communities since various broadcasting stations from all over the country participate in the project. Production staff from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu and Okinawa in the south engage in reporting and information gathering on a continuous basis to closely examine a number of pressing issues at the local level. The program has featured, for example, regional communities negatively affected by mega-development projects, people suffering from discrimination and prejudice, and local residents seeking to rejuvenate their neighborhood. Each episode vividly captures the dreams and hopes, the anger and despair, and the joy and sorrow of people in their communities.
 
This book is a long-awaited chronicle documenting the half-century history of NNN Document. What has NNN Document been communicating over the past five decades and how has it been doing so? The book provides a comprehensive picture of NNN Document in an unparalleled fashion by drawing on the program’s broadcasting record and thematically selected data. The weighty tome exceeding 1,300 pages speaks volumes about the historical significance of NNN Document built over half a century.

Television shows are often short-lived. They tend to be forgotten once they are broadcast. However, after a decade or two, they generate new value as a historical record. Documentary programs record not only incidents and events that occur at the time, but also people’s lives and heartaches, as well as the perceptions and thoughts of the producer who captures them. The book is an attempt to systematically summarize the history of NNN Document, a historical record of the first order, and pass it on to the next generation on its 50th anniversary. The author would be extremely gratified if this endeavor has turned out to be a success.


 

(Written by NIWA Yoshiyuki, Associate Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies / 2020)