Television in Japan

[japanfan]

Is television common in Japan? What are some popular TV shows? Can you get American stations and TV shows?

[larabell]

Television is very common and smaller sets are relatively inexpensive. The frequencies used are different from other countries so you may have to buy a set here in order to watch commercial TV. Most of the programming is in Japanese, but there are cable and satellite systems that allow you to receive the standard syndicated fare (Fox, Discovery, CNN, etc).

[steadyboy]

if i were to bring my sky box from the UK, would it work there in Japan?

[larabell]

What's a "sky box"? If you're talking satellite reception, you need only think of a globe to answer that question. If it's a cable box, the answer is almost certainly no. In fact, if it receives television signals in any way other than from a VHS tape or a DVD, the answer is mostly likely no.

[synthia]

You will be able to get cable. When I lived in Japan, it was possible to watch American shows both in English and with Japanese dubbed in. Most movies have subtitles.

[larabell]

His question, though, was whether he could bring his "sky box" from the UK and have it work in Japan. Of course, cable exists here. But the chances the UK box will work as-in in Japan are pretty slim.

[synthia]

Originally Posted by japanfan

Is television common in Japan? What are some popular TV shows? Can you get American stations and TV shows?

He didn´t ask about the skybox until later. I was responding to this. He seems to be under the impression that Japan is a backward country with no TV infrastructure.

His box won´t work, because even if it were technically possible, the carriers wouldn´t let him use it.

Can you still do that English-Japanese flipflop? That was kind of cool.

[steadyboy]

Sorry to mislead you guys, but sky box is a colloquial terms we British use to describe the receiver used to collect the signals that Rupert Murdoch's company - Sky transmits around the world. I wondered if I could bring that with me so that I could continue to enjoy all my settings/favourites etc. My thinking was that as Japan is in a diffent hemisphere would the satellites' direction allow/prevent it? I didn't think that Japan was in any way a backward nation.

[larabell]

Any television receiver brought in from outside Japan is likely not to work. The standards are simply different. And if it involves a satellite, you're screwed. From Japan, the satellites that broadcast to the UK are clean on the other side of the mostly-round Earth. As for the settings, those are almost certainly based on the local environment and, even if you got the box to work, your old settings would probably net you a completely different compliment of channels.

That said, I feel I should also include the disclaimer that I've never tried this and am only going by technical data that I've read. YMMV. For example, even though the FM radio broadcast band in Japan is offset from what it is in the States, there is some overlap so US-made radios *can* pick up some FM broadcasts -- just not all of them.

Synthia: I'm not sure what "flipflop" you're referring to. I must have missed something.

[Sevenhelmets]

Originally Posted by steadyboy

Sorry to mislead you guys, but sky box is a colloquial terms we British use to describe the receiver used to collect the signals that Rupert Murdoch's company - Sky transmits around the world. I wondered if I could bring that with me so that I could continue to enjoy all my settings/favourites etc. My thinking was that as Japan is in a diffent hemisphere would the satellites' direction allow/prevent it? I didn't think that Japan was in any way a backward nation.

No you couldn't bring it over, as you need to be hooked up to the network providing the satellite feed, which in your case is stuck back in the UK.

Sky is also available in Australia and New Zealand, but you can't take the decoder from one country to the other, for the same reasons.

Japan has it's own version - when you are apartment hunting you'll often see "BS" and "CS" everywhere, this means that the apartment blocks are cabled up for cable TV. You can also call up satellite TV companies, and they'll bring in their own decoders, and install mini satellite dishes on your balcony.

With these you'll be able to subscribe to all the usual suspects - Discovery channel, BBC, Animal Planet, CNN etc etc.