NHK Party’s Takashi Tachibana Baffles Supporters While Ironically Boosting License Sign-Ups

NHK is being sued in court one after another

“‘N-Koku’ has ironically become the biggest collector of NHK fees (laughs),”

This is what Chidai, an election watcher and observer of Takashi Tachibana, leader of the NHK Party (officially “The Party to Protect the People from NHK,” 58), told our reporters.

Tachibana, known for his catchphrase “We’ll destroy NHK!”, has been posting videos on his SNS, usually full of bold statements, but something unusual happened on this day.

On July 30, Tachibana used his YouTube channel to solicit donations for a woman.

This woman had fallen behind on her NHK fees and had been taken to court last year over unpaid fees. The court ultimately demanded payment of 55,000 yen, including legal costs, and enforcement had already been applied.

She was in a very difficult situation and reportedly consulted the NHK Party. To help her, Tachibana called for donations.

Although the party’s name has changed several times, its slogan “We’ll destroy NHK!” remains. The party continues to claim it is working to dismantle NHK, but more than ten years since its founding, NHK remains intact and shows no sign of collapsing.

The party’s policy to destroy NHK is essentially encouraging nonpayment of fees. On its website, there is a chart titled:

〈How to Not Pay〉

which explains how to avoid paying NHK fees.

The party specifically advises people to sign a contract with NHK but not pay. According to them, there are two reasons for this: signing is a legal obligation, and failing to sign violates Article 64 of the Broadcasting Act. Also, if NHK sues an uncontracted person, the statute of limitations cannot be applied, and the person may be charged for all fees since the date of TV installation. For those who are contracted, the statute of limitations limits claims to the most recent five years.

Additionally, uncontracted individuals are subject to surcharges, making it extremely risky to remain uncontracted if one owns a TV.

However, as the website notes, in some cases, continued nonpayment is simply impossible.

Now, those who have supported the NHK Party’s nonpayment policy are increasingly being taken to court by NHK. As a result, the number of people consulting the NHK Party is rising. Beyond the woman mentioned, similar fundraising videos have been posted for others in the same situation.

Until now, Tachibana had never posted videos calling for donations to help those seeking advice. So why did he suddenly upload such a video?

“Previously, there were people consulting the ‘NHK Party,’ but the numbers were small, and the party itself provided support. Those eligible for aid were people who had lost in court and received a payment order. From now on, it seems they will limit support to those who have had forced collection applied. Tachibana says that when a payment order arrives, it can be ignored, and even if you lose in court, there’s no need to pay. Only about 30% of those who lose in court will face forced collection, and it’s okay as long as their bank accounts haven’t been identified. I wonder if that’s really true. For those subjected to forced collection, the party will no longer provide aid; instead, donations will be raised from supporters. Specifically, supporters will transfer money directly to the bank accounts of the consultors via Tachibana. In any case, it seems they’ve run out of money,” explained a national newspaper reporter.

Tachibana himself explained in the video that in the recent House of Councillors election, not only did he lose, but Satoshi Hamada (48), who ran proportionally, also lost, receiving less than 2% of the vote. This meant the party could not regain status as a national political party.

In other words, they no longer receive public party subsidies. On top of that, he apparently has considerable debt. In the video, he even said, “The one who needs help is me,” complaining tearfully.

While supporting those in need is commendable, it feels odd that people who haven’t paid NHK fees are paying the fees of others. Voices have also emerged saying:

“In the end, if we were going to have to pay anyway, we should have just paid from the start.”

“I have nothing to worry about if I get rid of my TV set.”

If the number of people being taken to court by NHK continues to rise, it’s unclear what will happen. There’s a limit to how much “donations” can cover. In response, Tachibana unveiled his “secret strategy” to destroy NHK. That strategy was:

“Throw away your TV.”

It makes you want to say, “Wait, what?” but in fact, it’s hard to argue with its effectiveness—without a TV, there’s no need to pay reception fees.

He went further, claiming:

“Even if you throw away your TV, you won’t be inconvenienced at all.”

This is because “you can watch the weather forecast, news, and commercial broadcasts online.” He also pointed out that the World Baseball Classic is now exclusively on Netflix, and that not all games of Japan’s 12 professional baseball teams are broadcast on TV. His advice:

“If you want to watch sports, subscribe to DAZN.”

So, in his view, owning a TV is pointless; a smartphone or computer is all you need.

This, however, drew immediate criticism:

“On the internet, you can’t watch live commercial programs, can you?”
“People who can’t pay reception fees—are they going to subscribe to Netflix or DAZN?”

Then, at a party press conference and on his YouTube channel on September 5, he went even further:

“Those who don’t dispose of their TVs by 2026 will receive no support.”

This sparked anger among his supporters:

“I trusted Tachibana and refused to pay. Now he’s telling us to throw away our TVs? What the heck?”
“I’ve been supporting them because they said non-payment was fine, but now I can’t trust them anymore.”

Originally, those who supported Tachibana did so not because they hated watching TV, but because they didn’t want to pay reception fees for NHK. Many had spent a lot of money on their TVs, which weren’t broken, so throwing them away was unreasonable.

Moreover, it’s well-known that even without a TV, if you have a smartphone, computer, or car navigation system that can receive NHK, you are still obliged to pay.

According to Chidai, the election watcher previously mentioned:

“An estimated 30,000 people are not paying NHK fees in support of Tachibana. If each person is billed around 100,000 yen, the total is enormous. Originally, some people hadn’t even contracted with NHK and weren’t paying fees, but Tachibana encouraged them to contract, then instructed them not to pay. Ironically, he ended up helping NHK increase the number of contracted viewers. Plus, those not paying accumulate penalties and court costs, often paying more than regular viewers. So, the person collecting the most money ended up being Tachibana himself—a ridiculous outcome.”

Even his supporters seem exasperated. Tachibana’s YouTube views have dropped compared to before, and critical comments have increased. It raises the question: will he destroy NHK, or will NHK end up destroying him first?