NHK announced the appointment of current Vice President Tatsuhiko Inoue as the next President of NHK. The appointment was decided by NHK’s Board of Governors which met on December 8 to discuss the successor to President Nobuo Inaba, whose term ends on January 24, 2026. Following the announcement, Inoue held a press conference last night to express his views on NHK’s role amid a changing media landscape. Inoue’s three-year
term as NHK president will begin on January 25.
Inoue joined NHK as a news reporter in 1980, beginning his career at NHK’s Nagasaki Station in southern Japan,
where he spent six years covering disasters, incidents, and a wide range of local news. From 1986 onward, he
specialized in political and foreign affairs reporting, later rising to become Head of the Political News Division in 2005. He subsequently served as Controller of Editing in the News Department. In June 2011, in the aftermath of the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, he assumed the role of Director of the Programming Department. In this capacity, he was entrusted with comprehensive responsibility for planning and coordinating NHK’s entire programming, including news broadcasts dedicated to safeguarding lives and delivering vital information to the public.
Inoue became a member of NHK’s Executive Board and was appointed Senior Director in 2014, a role that involved shaping NHK’s strategies and corporate plans. From 2016, he served for six years as President and CEO of two NHK technical affiliates—NHK I-Tech and Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT)—where he oversaw initiatives supporting broadcasting technologies and Japan’s satellite broadcasting infrastructure.
In February 2023, Inoue was appointed Executive Vice President of NHK in recognition of his extensive professional expertise, broad network of relationships both within and beyond NHK, and his considerable managerial experience. Inoue is 68 years old.
Before Inoue, six consecutive presidents came from outside the broadcaster. He is the first NHK official to become president since 2005, when Hashimoto Genichi took up the position
