NHK WORLD PRIME
6.4
2017
Documentary
NHK WORLD PRIME brings you a world of mainly documentaries, and more. Tune in to see special select programs on all sorts of topics and genres.
-
- Cast:
Episode 23 : China's Largest Relocation Policy: Part 2
October. 27,2018
Beijing is staging the largest-ever relocation policy by moving entire remote villages to suburbs near cities to solve poverty. Many villagers are ethnic minorities. Beijing is investing $120 billion over 5 years to move 10 million villagers into the market economy and boost the flat economy. Media regulation had made details unclear, so we followed villagers from Banzigou, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, for a year. Part 2 shows the unexpectedly harsh reality of people stuck between traditional life and modernization.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 22 : China's Largest Relocation Policy: Part 1
October. 20,2018
Beijing is staging the largest-ever relocation policy by moving entire remote villages to suburbs near cities to solve poverty. Many villagers are ethnic minorities. Beijing is investing $120 billion over 5 years to move 10 million villagers into the market economy and boost the flat economy. Media regulation had made details unclear, so we followed villagers from Banzigou, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, for a year. Part 1 depicts the villagers' expectations and concerns.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 21 : Life at the Bottom of China's Labor Market
October. 13,2018
Behind the big city glamour of Shen Zhen, China, lie its back alleys, stretching out from the job allocation office of the San He Labor Market. Here, cheap internet cafes and flophouses are squeezed. Young people from the countryside arrive in droves in search of a better life, but many descend into a cycle of gambling, debt, sleeping on the streets and round-the-clock online gaming. From the depths of China's Silicon Valley, the program focuses on the realities of Shen Zhen's day laborers.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 18 : Mt. Ishizuchi: Mountain of the Gods
August. 18,2018
Mt. Ishizuchi, the highest peak in western Japan, has been venerated by local residents for centuries. A sea of clouds often envelopes its soaring ridge line, soaking the mountainside with abundant rain. Water takes many forms here, pooling in marshes, flowing in streams, rising in turbulent fog and freezing as rime and ice. It creates an awe-inspiring landscape of green mossy mounds and gorgeous tapestries of deciduous and evergreen trees. This program highlights some of the many delights that await visitors in all seasons.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 17 : Houses for Peace: Exploring the Legacy of Floyd Schmoe
August. 11,2018
Nearly 70 years ago, an American named Floyd Schmoe arrived in the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima on a mission of peace. Over 5 years, Schmoe, a Quaker and lifelong pacifist, led a diverse group of volunteers from the US and Japan in a project to build houses. In all, "Houses for Hiroshima" created 21 homes for atomic bomb survivors and their families. New information about Schmoe's efforts came to light in Hiroshima this year. Through historical documents and interviews with people who knew and worked with Schmoe, we trace the legacy of a grassroots peace builder.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 15 : Nike's Backstory: Unknown Bonds with Japan
July. 14,2018
"Shoe Dog", the memoir by Nike founder Phil Knight, has been an unexpected hit in Japan. It candidly talks about how more than 40 years ago, Knight's fledgling running shoe business was in danger of going under – until a Japanese company came to the rescue. Just how did this happen? Interviews with people involved at the time reveal a group of businessmen taking on continuous risk during Japan's era of high economic growth. In this program, we chase after the hidden story behind a global company's beginnings and the spirit of the Japanese trading company employees who supported him.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 14 : I Was a Caged Bird: Psychiatric Hospitalization in Japan
June. 30,2018
Japan is a psychiatric hospital superpower. About 20% of all the psychiatric hospital beds in the world are concentrated in Japan, where many patients are confined for long periods of time. The United Nations and the World Health Organization have criticized this situation as a serious violation of human rights, but the actual conditions have been largely hidden from sight in Japan. However, after the 2011 nuclear power accident, the problem has begun to come into view. There are people who have spent more than half of their lives in the hospital. Others never required hospitalized care in the first place. The program follows the lives of a number of these patients and examines the reasons behind this problem.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 13 : Survivor Trees: Hiroshima Revealed
June. 23,2018
August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was devastated by an atomic bombing. Yet some trees survived, brought back life and gave people hope. NY Artist, Cannon Hersey has visited Hiroshima many times, where he has been creating art about survivor tree, called Hibaku Jumoku. Cannon takes a journey from Hiroshima to New York, from Ground Zero to Ground Zero, to reveal the untold stories of the trees. What are they telling us? This is a story of the people and the trees that survived.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 12 : Lives Overshadowed by Crime: The Wakayama Curry Poisoning Incident
June. 09,2018
In 1998, four innocent people lost their lives when arsenic was mixed into curry served at a summer festival, in what is known as the Wakayama Curry Poisoning Incident. Masumi Hayashi, a housewife, was arrested and sentenced to death for the crime, but she still claims her innocence. Her son, who's now 30, was bullied and taunted after his mother's arrest. He has remained in contact with her during her detention, but he feels torn. Should he cut ties with his mother and start a new life? Or should he continue to shoulder the burdens of the past? We follow his struggle to decide.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 11 : Lives Overshadowed by Crime: The Underground Website Murder
June. 02,2018
In August 2007, 31-year-old Rie Isogai was brutally killed by 3 men who met online, in a case called the Underground Website Murder. After Rie's death, her mother, Fumiko, met and befriended her daughter's boyfriend. He shared stories about Rie and stayed by Fumiko's side, helping her find the strength to go on. We look at how Fumiko has lived with the unrelenting pain of losing her beloved daughter.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 10 : The Changing Face of Greed: A Power of Darkness Awakens - Part 2
April. 21,2018
In the second half of our 2018 special look at capitalism, we delve into the source of humans' greed, the driving force behind capitalism. What exactly is money in the first place? Kabir Sehgal (America) and Tomas Sedlacek (Czech Republic) discuss currency theory, while Ulrike Herrmann (Germany) and Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University professor) analyze the harmful effects capitalism has on the state of big industries. What is the Marxist "power of darkness" that Schumpeter discovered? Take a look at the frontline of economics alongside these leading global minds and contemplate the methods used to survive in these constantly changing times.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 7 : Setsuko Thurlow's Quest: A World Without Nuclear Weapons
March. 17,2018
Setsuko Thurlow was 13 when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Horrific scenes of pain and destruction were burned into her memory. She moved to the US and Canada and began to tell the world what had happened in Hiroshima. Her work with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) overcame resistance from nuclear powers and resulted in the adoption of a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Their efforts earned the group the Nobel Peace Prize. This gripping documentary follows Setsuko's journey from a childhood wracked by war to international recognition.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 5 : Chasing the Father's Shadow: Vietnamese Children of Japanese Soldiers
February. 24,2018
72 years after the end of World War II, a group of about a dozen people visited Japan. They were born and raised in Vietnam yet consider Japan their homeland in some sense. Their fathers were Japanese soldiers who remained in Vietnam after the war, to fight for the country's independence from France. About 70 of these soldiers had families in Vietnam but suddenly went back to Japan without saying a word. The group from Vietnam arrived in Japan in October of 2017, chasing their fathers' shadows.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 4 : Valens's Return Home: A Rwandan Genocide Offender 22 Years On
February. 03,2018
During the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, an overwhelming number of people were slaughtered in ethnic conflicts between the Tutsi and Hutu. Rwanda has abolished the death penalty and scores of offenders who have completed their sentences are now being released from prison. Can they coexist with society? Many of the offenders live close to their victims' families, often in the same village. This program follows one offender's return home. Valens Habakurama was charged with the killings of two Tutsi brothers. After completing his sentence, he returns home to his wife and children. We documented his first seven days out of prison—from his apology to the victims' family to acceptance and reconciliation.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 3 : Strategy Gone Awry: Revisiting the US Air Raids on Japan
January. 27,2018
The United States dominates the world in airpower. Behind the birth of the US Air Force is a little-known story about the deadly firebombing campaign against Japan at the end of World War II. NHK combed through audiotaped interviews with 246 senior Air Force officials, including the leader of the air assault on Japan, Gen.Curtis LeMay. The interviews reveal how an "ideal" strategy designed to cause minimal civilian casualties ultimately went awry, and gave way to attacks with incendiary bombs that claimed some 400,000 Japanese lives.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 2 : Between Two Homes: A 102-Year Old Japanese Woman in South Korea
January. 13,2018
Fusako Kunita is a 102-year-old Japanese woman who has lived on the Korean Peninsula for more than 70 years. Like many other Japanese women who followed their Korean-born husbands back to their homeland after the World War II, Fusako had no idea what awaited her. She faced discrimination, cultural differences, and sudden changes in diplomatic policy between Japan and South Korea. Fusako also dealt with sorrow and loneliness. But she endured, and worked to create a support group for other Japanese women. As she looks back on her remarkable and inspiring life, we'll learn more about the lives of the women obscured in the shadows of history.
Watch Now
Stream in HD
Episode 1 : One Last Vision: A Photographer's Final Journey
January. 06,2018
Photographer Yoshikazu Shirakawa traveled the untouched corners of the world as part of a lifelong quest to rediscover the planet. At 82 his final global trip has the theme of Creation. He hopes the vast, untouched landscapes seen by the first humans will restore our humanity and teach us humility at a time when we are bloated with greed. He begins in the Colorado plains, shooting in extreme conditions. Photographer Yoshikazu Shirakawa puts his life on the line in pursuit of Creation.
Watch Now
Stream in HD