According to March 27 edition of Sankei Shimbun and April 4 edition of Tokyo Shimbun, Japan Commercial Broadcasting Association (JBA) required the following main items at the meeting of experts in Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIT) held on March 27.
1) System modification before 2028 to enable AM broadcasters to convert FM by their own judgment,
2) Permission before 2023 to enable AM broadcasters to stop AM broadcasting experimentally for a long period.
It is said MIT fears China will occupy and dominate the vacant AM(MW) band.
The president of NHK, Ryoichi Ueda, said at the press conference on April 4, NHK will continue to broadcast on AM, because, by the Japanese broadcasting low, NHK is under the obligation to completely cover the whole territory of Japan.
According to JBA, there are 207 members in April 2018.
Among them 15 MW, 1 SW, 32 AM+TV broadcasters.
Takahito Akabayashi
Tokyo, Japan
(via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews April 6)
