Production in 2008

Super Correspondents; When Will the Nightmare End?　---Reporting the World Financial Crisis from N.Y.

Director: Hiroshi MASUDA

The world is falling into an unprecedented financial crisis after the fall of Lehman Brothers in September. The markets are experiencing freefalls, leaving Japan no exception. What's occurring in the Wall St.? Mr. Yohichi Ito, economist visit and investigate the matter. He interviews Prof. Paul Krugman, the Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, meets informants at NYSE, car dealers, and other businesses, and discuss with Mr. Jitsuro Terashima and Mr. Takuro Morinaga.

Production in 2007

NHK Special Tracy, the Secret Interrogation Center; what did Japanese POW's tell the enemy?

Broadcast: August 7th, 2007 10:00～10:49p.m.   Project initiated by Seiichi NAKATA Director: Hiroshi MASUDA Special thanks to: Ulrich Strauss (author of "THE ANGUISH OF SURRENDER")

Near San Francisco rests an abandoned brick building that once was an extremely secret interrogation center for Japanese POW's during WWII. The center, codenamed "Tracy", hosted more than two thousand soldiers and obtained all sorts of information on Japan; military bases and ports, ships, order of battle, industries, morale. Two prisoners were put in one cell to monitor the conversation between them, to verify their answers to interrogators and get more information. The program analyses the interrogation reports and other documents from Tracy, and depicts the information war that the U.S. had overwhelming victory.

Production in 2006

Small Countries in the World

Broadcast: On Digital Hi-Vision: 18:30-18:50　（10 min. each episode） April 6th: Principality of Monaco, Republic of Palau April 20th: Republic of Malta, Republic of Fiji Islands April 27th: Republic of San Marino, Independent State of Samoa May 11th: Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Vanuatu May 18th: Republic of Suriname, Republic of Maldives May 25th: Commonwealth of Dominica, Brunei Darussalam June 1th: Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Kingdom of Bhutan June 8th: Belize, Principality of Liechtenstein June 29th: Republic of Iceland, Principality of Andorra July 6th: Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Republic of Estonia   Producer: Kazuo MATSUI, Toshiro SOGA Director: Ken HASEGAWA, Hiroshi MASUDA, Ken'ichi TAKAHASHI, Kaoru NAKAHARA, Hiroko MATSUNO, Sanshiro IWATA

Those strange but familiar names in the opening parade of Olympic Games, or a tiny territory found in your armchair journey with a world atlas.... The program focuses on history, culture, and modern aspects of those countries with population under one million, and will let us feel still remaining diversity of the world, and help us to challenge a simple but great question: What the hell is a nation? BS Documentary Dubai on the Top Gear; from desert and oil to miraculous cosmopolis   Broadcast: July 15th, 10:10-11:00p.m. Channel: NHK BS1   Producer:Kazuo MATSUI Director: Yoko TSUZUKI   Hiroshi MASUDA Assistant: Tami HATANO  A miraculous city of Dubai is rising from desert. Although it is a small nation consisting United Arab Emirates, it is luring money, material, and people from all over the world to grow rapidly; the world-biggest manmade island, the world-highest building, abundant money to make these mega projects realize, and people from more than 100 countries. The program runs after this cosmopolis on the fastest track and tries to find answers to all the marvels and whys. Bi no Tsubo File.30 Art Deco Architecture   Broadcast: December 1st　10：00～10：25p.m. (NHK Educational) December 4th　7：30～7：55p.m. (NHK BS-hi) December 6th　11：30～11：55a.m. (NHK BS-hi) December 9th　5：15～5：40a.m. (NHK General)   Director： Hiroshi MASUDA Assistant Director： Tami HATANO Producer: Kazuo MATSUI  The program is a series that picks up one item of beauty in Japanese life every week, and finds out three points to appreciate its beauty. For this week, we focus on Art Deco architecture in Japan. Can't find any Art Deco on the street? Actually, there is an Art Deco residence in Tokyo, which was directly designed by French designers. There are also classic buildings of Art Deco age in major cities in Japan, which had unique development with its wall materials.

Production in 2004

Auctioning Wildlife Animals in South Africa
  ～Can Invisible Hand Save Our Nature?～
 

Broadcast: November 13, 2004 10:10-11:00p.m.
Project initiated, directed, and produced by Hiroshi MASUDA Assistant Director: Kumiko NAKAJIMA Producer: Kazuo MATSUI Production Manager: Toshiro SOGA

 Every year in South Africa are held very unique auctions to sell off wildlife animals just taken from savanna; lions, buffaloes, giraffes, etc. The biggest auction held in June gains as much as 300 million US Dollars just in one day by selling 2,000 animals of 20 species. Some might suspect it is a story of underground business including poaching and smuggling, but reality is that these auctions are not only legitimate, fair and square business fields, but also play important role in the wildlife conservation policy.

In every nation in the world, it is an important and difficult question how to conserve wildlife and realize coexistence with human. The common method is to regulate hunting and other utilization of wildlife that are possessed by nobody or solely by the state, which is perceived as the major premise. But in South Africa, there has been a Copernican change to start conservation by allowing privatization of wild animals. This change has resulted in drastically improved conservation and also boosting wildlife industry. So, what's wrong with this new policy, producing better conservation and more money?

But where is the "wild"life going? The program will explore the changing "wild" world, by following the process of wildlife animals getting counted, enlisted, captured, translocated, sold at an auction, and their fate afterward, and by focusing also on the activities of industries and people working on the process.

America ― Heartland and Soul

Now it is on NHK TV on irregular schedule. To get the latest on-air schedule, please go to their websitehttp://www.nhk.or.jp/ in Japanese and search with Japanese program title, because unfortunately there seems to be no search function in English.   Project Design and Chief Director: Hiroshi MASUDA Chief Producer: Yoshio UCHIDA General Producer: Toshiro SOGA Executive Producer: Shigeru MURAI, Hironao IMAZU (Evergreen Digital Contents, Inc.) Assistant Producer: Yoko SORATA, Hisahiro KAWANO Coordination and facilitation: Noriko TAKAMATSU, Jordan KRAFT Copyright Arrangement: Elke TITUS, Shizuko AMANO Director: Hiroshi MASUDA, Yuri OSUGI, Koji HAYASAKI, Mitsuhiro HARAGUCHI

 An unprecedented travelogue project to portray this big nation is under way taking two years, and to complete soon. The program consists of fifty episodes with each destination around the States, starting from Plymouth, MA, where the first steps were made by the Pilgrim fathers, and reaching Fairbanks, AK, as the last frontier. Format: 50 episodes, 10 min. each episode, Japanese version, HDTV NTSC (Please inquire for other formats and languages).

The Volume titles, fifty destinations, states, and contents:

Where it All Started             -New England-   Plymouth MA Arrival of the Mayflower   Boston MA Midnight Ride for Independence   Concord MA Lights Reflecting on the Walden Pond   Newport RI America's First Resort   New Haven CT A Birthplace of the Hamburger Fields of Dreams                 -New York-   Ellis Island NY The Tiny Island that Saw Millions of Hopes   Manhattan NY Driving through Broadway   Wall Street NY The Capital of Money   Cooperstown NY The First "Play ball!"   Niagara NY Waterfall for Two How to Build a Great Nation  -Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.-   Philadelphia/   Gettysburg PA For Whom the Liberty Bell Tolled?   Pittsburg PA Carnegie and the Steel City   Washington D.C./   Arlington DC/VA They Are Silent but Eloquent   Smithsonian DC The Largest Collection in the World   Mount Vernon/   Monticello VA The Hometown of Founding Fathers Deep into the Soul of America  -The South-   Charleston SC Where the Old South Still Lives   Atlanta GA Gone with the Wind, Came with Coke   Montgomery AL A Small Bus that Changed America   Tuscumbia AL Hometown of Helen Keller   Charlotte NC A Center for Born Again Christians High Beyond the Sky        -Florida and Caribbean sea-   Kill Devil Hills NC Wright Brothers' Dream   Cape Canaveral FL Gateway to the Universe   Everglades FL The Great Wetland   Key West FL The Old Writer and the Sea   Puerto Rico   America in the Caribbean Sea Down by the Riverside-The Mississippi-   New Orleans LA Back O'Town, Small Pieces for Jazz   Memphis TN Birthplace of Rock'n Roll   Nashville TN Capital of Country Music   Hannibal MO Remember when you were a Tom Sawyer?   Chicago IL Roaring 20's and Chicago Blues Over the Horizon -Great Lakes and Plains-   Detroit MI The Invention that Changed the World   Milwaukee WI Harley-Davidson was Born   DeSmet SD Only Yesterday with the Ingalls Family   Black Hills SD/WY What America is to the Native Americans   Yellowstone WY/ID/MT The First National Park in the World Frontier Spirit Forever     -Texas-   The Alamo TX Prototype of "Remember and ..."   Dallas TX City of Cowboys   Houston TX Oil Capital of America   King Ranch TX Big Family on a Big Ranch   El Paso TX Hispanic Power Wild, Wild West        -Arizona and New Mexico-   Monument Valley UT/AZ The Scenery of America   Grand Canyon AZ Wonder of the Earth   Las Vegas NV The City of Desire   Trinity Site NM The Explosion that Changed the World Forever   Santa Fe NM Still Life in Adobe New Wave, Big Wave  -West Coast and Alaska-   Hollywood CA Dreams for a Nickel   San Francisco CA Where Have All the Flower Children Gone?   Napa/Sonoma CA Valleys of Vine and Wine   Seattle WA The Entrepreneurs: Boeing and Microsoft   Fairbanks AK The Last Frontier under Northern Lights

Production in 2003

"Journey to My Soul" "South Korea - To Meet Another Myself That Has Gone Far Away" traveler : Motoko MICHIURA, Tanka Poet

Broadcast: 26 January, 2003 by NHK BS2 44min. Project initiated, directed, and produced by Hiroshi MASUDA Assistant Director : Seiko TAKENAKA

Ms. Motoko Michiura is a well known poet of Tanka, the traditional poetry of fixed form with 31 syllables. She also writes essays and biographies, and has been attracted by Fumiko KANEKO, an anarchist who died at mere 23 year-old age, in 1926, after uncompromising fight against the imperial system of Japan. Ms. Michiura visits places in South Korea, where Fumiko lived in her childhood and rests in peace now, and finds herself that once longed to live and die young for her own thoughts like Fumiko, but has lived much longer to be drifted far away from where she used to stand.

Human Documentary Series: Min TANAKA --- A Dance of the Earth   Broadcast WORLDWIDE IN ENGLISH on NHK World TV: October 15th, 7:10 - 7:53 (GMT) 14:00 - 14:43 (GMT):2nd sound ch. in English 18:00 - 18:43 (GMT) 18th, 13:00 - 13:43 (GMT): 2nd sound ch. in English 20th, 1:00 - 1:43 (GMT): 2nd sound ch. in English   Broadcast in Japan (in Japanese) on NHK General Channel: October 3rd, 23:00 - 23:43 (JST) 8th, 2:00 - 2:43 (JST) 11th, 10:05 - 10:48 (JST)   Project initiated and produced by Akihito NOMURA Directed by Hiroshi MASUDA Direction assisted by Hiroko MATSUNO  Min TANAKA, 58 years old, is a world renowned Butoh dancer, who was given the L'ordre des arts et des lettres (Chevalier) by the French government and give Butoh lessons at the Dramatic School of Art in Moscow. His uniqueness lies not only in his dance, but also in his lifestyle; self-sustaining farm life with young dancers at a remote village deep in the mountains in Japan. The program focuses on his life and art, both of which are firmly rooted on mother earth, covering the farming, exercises, and producing dance in their village. Uta-kiko (Journey with Tanka) Only Yesterday, Just Around Us --- Revisited

Broadcast: November 29, 2003   6:40 - 7:10 a.m. December 4, 2003 5:30 - 6:00 a.m. Channel: NHK Educational Research, direction, and editing by Hiroko MATSUNO Filming by Osame MARUIKE Project initiated, directed and produced by Hiroshi MASUDA

Steam locomotives, shoe polishers, watchmaker's shop, street peddlers of balloons and goldfish..... Those things surely existed just around us, only yesterday, and were quite often became charming motifs of Tanka, Japanese traditional poems. Where have all these common and familiar things gone? The program portrays nostalgic or heartwarming moments by visiting sites where they live in various forms; still in real life, in other styles or places, or in the days of fading away.

Production in 2002

Journey along Great Rivers and History; Volga, the Rivival of Ethnic Identities

Broadcast: October 29, 2002 by NHK Hi-Vision(120 min.) Director: Hiroshi MASUDA

The program will take you to a virtual tour on the riverboat along Volga, from Moscow to Astrakhan.　Visiting Nizhni Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd, and Elista on the way, you will feel the revival to ethnic identities of the Tatars, the Cossacs, the German Immigrant, and the Kalmyks.

Production in 2001

"Journey to My Soul" "Germany - Between Home Land and Foreign Land" traveller: KANG SangJung, Political Scientist   Broadcast: 21 January,2001 by NHK BS2 44min. Project initiated, directed, and produced by Hiroshi MASUDA Mr. Kang Sang Jung, who became the first professor at Tokyo University, as a Korean resident born in Japan, is well known as a keen and active critic on modern Asia and Japan. In the program, he visits Erlangen, Germany, where he was a student twenty years ago. He stayed for only two years then, but he met a student from Greece, who soon became his best friend, and this German experience brought a big change in his life. After twenty years, he visits the campus again, reflects on experiences which made him what he is now, and meet his Greek friend again. Uta-kiko (Journey with Tanka) Now Haiku, Japanese traditional poetry of the shortest fixed form, with only 17 syllables, is getting popular worldwide. Tanka is the original and longer form of Haiku, made of 31 syllables, in which Japanese people have crystallized their sentiments over 1300 years. Uta-kiko is a serial 2 minute program of an anthology of Tanka made by Tanka poets in 19th and 20th century, with beautiful and lyric sceneries in Japan. The program is included in "NHK Kadan", serial Tanka program on NHK educational channel.

Production in 2000

WHO's WHO in Asia Restoring Our Deprived Homeland -Primorskij Kraj, Far-eastern Russia-

Broadcast: 28 February, 2000 by NHK BS1 20 min. Project initiated, produced, directed and edited by Hiroshi MASUDA

Overcoming sixty years of forced exile six thousand kilometers away, Soviet Koreans are coming back to their homeland in Russian far east. Program portrays their agony and hope, focusing on the struggle of Mr. Kim Telmir, who is the son of prosecuted revolutionary hero in the region, to help his fellow people as the leader of those Koreans. ETV2000 Secrets of Original Inventions Part 1 Shuji NAKAMURA Part 2 Toshitada DOI  Broadcast: 29 May, 2000 by NHK Educational TV 44 min. each Project initiated, directed and produced by Hiroshi MASUDA Series of interviews to the inventors who achieved unique and original invention. First part is the story of how Mr. Nakamura, who then was a young engineer at a small chemical company in a remote countryside of Japan, won all by himself in the cut throat race to invent blue LED, far leading big enterprises and universities. Second part is the story of Mr. Doi, who is now known as the creator of the Robot Dog by SONY, but have also accomplished many epoch-making invention, such as compact disks. He tells how he developed and realized his original idea, forming and leading right task force, amongst the bureaucratism and physics of organization which always work against unique and original ideas.