A Chinese staffer who went off-script during a news broadcast had expressed opposition to reading articles on Japanese islands claimed by China and other sensitive bilateral issues, Japan’s public broadcaster reported.

According to an investigative report released on Sept. 10 by Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) and other sources, the 48-year-old contract worker made unscripted remarks for 22 seconds during a live international radio program on Aug. 19.

Speaking in Chinese, he described the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea as Chinese territory although they are administered by Japan. Beijing claims the uninhabited islets as the Diaoyu Islands.

NHK said Sept. 10 that Kenji Sobata, senior director in charge of the international broadcast service, resigned to take responsibility for the incident the same day.

During a meeting before the program, the Chinese staffer expressed strong opposition to an article about Tokyo police investigating graffiti in Chinese at the war-related Yasukuni Shrine as vandalism.

“The article is ambiguous,” the man was quoted as saying. “If we translate it as is and broadcast it in Chinese, (the individual who reads it) will be in danger.”

In November, the man had asked if he could avoid broadcasting reports on political issues, citing the Senkaku Islands as an example.

In recent years, he told NHK employees that he was feeling anxiety and concerns about repercussions from Chinese authorities. He was also dissatisfied with his treatment at work. 

NHK failed to keep him from going off-script despite signs of his discontent.

At a news conference on Sept. 10, NHK President Nobuo Inaba acknowledged that there was a lack of risk awareness behind the incident.

Inaba likened what occurred to “broadcast hijacking.”

Inaba and three other executives will voluntarily return half of their director’s remuneration for one month.

The man has been translating news articles into Chinese and reading them on programs since he concluded a service contract with NHK in 2002.

When the contract was signed, NHK explained about its standards for international programs, which call for correctly conveying the official stance of the Japanese government.

During the Aug. 19 news program, the man arbitrarily added words to a report about graffiti at Yasukuni Shrine, which is viewed by China as a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism.

“Words of protest, such as ‘militarism’ and ‘die,” were written,” he said.

An NHK editor and an outside director were with him at the time, but they could not stop the broadcast or lower the volume.

Both told NHK that they were unable to respond to the sudden and unanticipated event.

After the program, the man repeatedly said that an individual cannot take risks for the sake of Japanese propaganda but did not provide detailed explanations.

NHK compiled its investigative report based on accounts by the editor, the director and others. It was unable to contact the Chinese staffer.

Minetoshi Yasuda, a writer familiar with China, said people have been denounced online more scathingly than previously for their pro-Japanese words and actions in recent years.

“Japanese media organizations need to give consideration to the risks their Chinese workers face,” Yasuda said.

‘HISTORICAL REVISIONISM’

A man who describes himself as a “former NHK employee with Chinese citizenship” opened an account on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Aug. 21, two days after the NHK radio program was aired.

His account has more than 60,000 followers.

The China News, a major news website, reported that the account is owned by the former Chinese contract worker at NHK.

A post uploaded on Sept. 7 said, “Japanese media trivialized my 22 seconds as an issue of ‘patriotic pageviews.’” It earned more than 6,000 likes.

The statement apparently shows the former staffer’s frustration that his action in Japan has been interpreted as an attempt to garner publicity through a patriotic stunt.

In China, video footage of a man scrawling graffiti at Yasukuni Shrine was criticized as a ploy to capitalize on Chinese “patriotism,” or anti-Japanese feelings, to attract pageviews.

When the man reported on Weibo that he had returned to China, he wrote, “I condensed everything, including all the truth and reality, into the 22 seconds.”

In many of his nearly 40 posts, the man criticized Japan for its “historical revisionism.”

“Suppose a Jewish announcer on a German public media outlet said, ‘Don’t forget Auschwitz.’ Will he be condemned as an enemy of the nation?” one post said. “(Japan) has become a foe of the truth of history and no one can suppress people who speak up for justice.”

On Weibo, related hashtags have attracted more than 100 million pageviews and ranked high on the list of trending topics.

The Asahi Shimbun requested an interview with the account owner but did not receive a response by Sept. 10.

(Yohei Kobayakawa, a correspondent in Shanghai, contributed to this article.)