Do you pay, or have you ever paid fees to NHK?

If I actually watched that government propaganda TV then I would pay but as I am extremely disgusted by the very thought of watching that garbage and not brainwashed to blindly pay for it, the answer is no, I have never paid for NHK nor will I ever.

I'd like to hear some feedback from the "I used to, but not anymore" voters. I assume you are not living in Japan anymore and if you are how did you manage to cancel the contract which should be impossible.

@papigiulio

I'm still living in Japan, but at some point I changed my bank account without informing them. And I never heard of them since.

@Bintaro

Woah, just simple as that? How long has it been? Great idea btw.

@papigiulio

It's been almost 3 years now.

By the way, I moved 6 times during this period, and still had visits from NHK guys, so I wonder how they register their customers anyway.

I used to pay but got an excemption from NHK bout 9yrs ago.

Not that I ever watch NHK.

I told them I didn't have a TV (I didn't) and the guy tried to force his way into my apartment. Well I'm 6'1" 200 pounds, so you can imagine how that went. I shut the door with him still seated on my porch. Never saw him again and that was the only visit I had in my 7 years in Japan.

When I was single I kept my TV in the futon cupboard. When NHK came I opened my door wide to let them see my apartment and said, see? No TV. They came maybe four times and none of them thought to open the cupboard door. So, when single, I didn’t pay. Nor really watched TV all that much.

Once married, the wife didn’t want to “break the law” as she put it, so she signed us up for automatic payment through the bank.

My lovely honest wife signed us up. She now regrets it.

 how did you manage to cancel the contract which should be impossible. the trick is not to enter into any contract the first place

I'm amazed at the number of people who think dodging their obligations is something to brag about. The rule (I don't care if it's a law or not) is that if you have a telly you pay the national TV license fee, just like for the BBC. I know they don't call it a license and I know they aren't as strict about it as the BBC, but the principle is the same.

Blatant lies and violence?

Shame on all you the-rules-don't-apply-to-me freeloaders.

how did you manage to cancel the contract which should be impossible

It's very, very simple. You phone the NHK Customer Service, tell them you no longer have a telly, they send you a form to fill in and send back, your contract is cancelled and you get a rebate for what was left of your last payment after you got rid of your telly. No hassle at all.

Never had a TV.

Still, these guys coerced me to make a contract because I had an old laptop with analog TV which never worked in the first place.

After I actually read the law and saw I shouldn't be paying this, I basically told them the contract was invalid because it was signed under false pretenses. And then they started to harass me for about 2 years, The place I used to live in had auto-lock at the entry of the building, but these guys would enter anyway probably while waiting someone to come out or in, and would ring my door at 11 PM. Or they would come at 7 AM.

In fact, one time they told me "We know you shouldn't be paying, but just pay so we can leave you alone".

These guys are complete thugs and scumbags.

2yrs and you never called the cops, etc. Unlikely as your story is.

Came to our place twice noticing we have a satellite dish outside (pointed in another direction from NHK-BS). Did the old 'English-only' trick first time. Then let my wife get at the guy the second time. I just laughed - he got it in the neck just once.

I am proud of my wife.

I was a dumb college student at the time, and had (still have but now I know how to control it) crippling social anxiety, so I actually preferred to just ignore them than to make a big problem out of it.

And also, it's not like that would have made much difference, as far as I've researched, the NHK subcontracts other companies to do the collecting, so that the NHK has absolutely no legal responsibility for what the collector did.

If you think my story is unlikely, I recommend you to research about it. Other people has had it worse than me. Some collectors have actually intimidated and used violence in some cases. In this cases the police does get involved, but NHK bares no responsibility at all.

I say unlikely if you got an autolock and he knocks on your door without being buzzed in = he is trespassing in the building ergo an arrestable offense.

It seems that people here in Japan don't have free choice of NHK contract whether they watch NHK programs or not. NHK says as long as there is TV set at house, everybody must pay to NHK. How ridiculous it is! People do have a right NOT to watch NHK though they have a right to watch it. With Japanese Keitai/smart phone people can watch NHK and other broadcasting programs, then NHK says this is same as TV set, so make the NHK contract and must pay.

In this cases the police does get involved, but NHK bares no responsibility at all.

Actually they do if you sue them in court.

It's the same as a recall of cars with faulty sub-component. Even though the car manufacturers did not make the sub-component themselves they still have the responsibility to supervise the need for quality control, same with NHK is required to supervise their sub-contractors to abide the law and normal customs of door to door sales person not to be mistaken with money collectors which falls under different law.

If not NHK will be held accountable as much as the sub-contractors that actually does the illegal collecting.

We dumped our TV about 20 years ago. We don't watch NHK or any other TV channel. We don't need TV and find that we are much better off without it.

Fair play, Bertie.

Couldn't do without it, myself. There's such an array of quality programmes out there, I'd be loathe to knock it on the head.

Still, I've read over 40 books this year, so it's not like I'm missing out on the more high brow stuff...

You mean you folks don’t like Domo-kun? :(

Read the law.

放送法第６４条第１項において、「協会の放送を受信することのできる受信設備を設置した者は、協会とその放送の受信についての契約をしなければならない。」と定められています。

It does not say you have to pay if you have a TV in the house. I used to keep the TV set in the genkan to show them that it was not 'set up'.

But if they see flickering light in the windows, they will figure that you do watch TV. They will also have placed a sticker near your doorway to alert other NHK canvassers who might come along as to your payment status.

According to this poll, almost double the number of people don't pay over those who do.

For those of you that watch NHK and don't pay, you give the rest of us foreigners a bad name.

Answer One (I do pay, or I once paid) and Three are essentially the same, except that by voting with 3 you are making a statement.

I would sell my T.V. before paying this. It is a good example of something becoming law and it being really hard to change it. Check out the history if you read Japanese, wiki "NHK受信料". The laws were created to protect national Radio as a public service; this makes sense if the only form of information is from the Radio and de facto no one wants to pay for radio waves, so there is a need for a law to make people pay for it.