Tokyo– NHK WORLD TV, NHK’s international television service in English, will reinforce its presentation of local stories from around Japan for the second half of the 2015 broadcasting year with the addition of a new program, Hometown Stories. The series will consist of programmes produced by NHK’s regional stations in Japan, depicting provincial Japanese lifestyles, culture, industry and other richly varied content with strong local colour. Amid the growing influx of tourists from abroad and rising interest in Japan, NHK has received increasing requests for information about not only Tokyo and other major cities and the most famous tourist spots but also the places lesser known to overseas audience.

The programs range from long-running series featuring local topics, to attractive “close-up” human interest documentaries about the local people.