Photo/Illutration Ryota Takeda, the telecommunications minister, at a news conference on March 12 (Kotaro Ebara)

Telecommunications minister Ryota Takeda said a Tohokushinsha Film Corp. subsidiary will be stripped of its license to broadcast a channel because of false information submitted about its ratio of foreign ownership.

About 700 people have subscribed to the channel, called Cinema 4K, which features foreign films, the ministry said.

Takeda said at a news conference on March 12 that the process will start to revoke part of the license of the subsidiary as a satellite broadcasting business over violations of the Broadcast Law.

Under the law, a broadcasting company with foreign shareholders representing 20 percent or more of the voting rights is not allowed to operate in Japan.

When Tohokushinsha applied to the ministry for accreditation to broadcast the channel in October 2016, it claimed that the ratio of foreign capital was less than 20 percent.

The company obtained the license in January 2017, and operation of the channel was later handed to the subsidiary, Tohokushinsha Media Service.

But the ministry has learned that statement about the foreign investment ratio was false, Takeda said.

As a punishment, the subsidiary will lose the right to broadcast Cinema 4K at an unspecified time. The ministry will require the company to notify the channel’s subscribers about the matter.

Other channels and broadcasting services provided by Tohokushinsha will not be affected, the ministry said.

A formal decision will be made after the ministry interviews officials of the company.

It is unusual for the ministry to revoke a license of a satellite broadcasting company.

Tohokushinsha Film has come under scrutiny over a series of dinners involving Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s son, an employee of the company, and top ministry officials.

After the scandal broke, the ministry asked the company again about the ratio of foreign capital.

The ministry found the ratio was actually 20.75 percent on the basis of voting power, exceeding the limit under the law.

A Tohokushinsha official told the ministry that the company had believed the ratio was over 10 percent but less than 20 percent, according to the ministry.

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