JIB TV: Japanese Television, Anywhere in the World

JIB (Japan International Broadcasting) TV is a venture to stream Japanese television to the rest of the world. The concept may seem odd at first- most programming in Japan is in Japanese, and most people outside of Japan don't speak the language- but NHK has a fair amount of English programming, and plans are in the works to translate more of its Japanese shows. NHK, NTT Communications, Microsoft, TV-Asahi, TBS, NTV and Fuji-TV have all contributed to the project.

This project is rooted from the idea of former NHK chairman Keiji Shima, that intends to build up a worldwide 24-hour TV channel in association with BBC and ABC, but he resigned the position because of impeachment scandal and died before he complete what he has thought.

Inspired by brand new 24-hour international channels like France 24, Deutsche Welle and Aljazeera English service, Japanese government and the ruling party have demanded to set up more substantial information resources to let the world know more about Japan in order to gain the country's presence in international communities.

(Asiajin)

There's one odd aspect to JIB TV: you can't get it in Japan! Due to licensing restrictions, anyone connecting to the site from a Japanese IP address will be unable to access the programming. There are workarounds, of course, but for the over 2 million foreigners living in Japan, not being able to see English programming their friends at home can is likely to be frustrating.