TMCnet News
NHK asks Toyota to supply official to become director+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 18_(Kyodo) _ Japan Broadcasting Corp., better known as NHK, has asked Toyota Motor Corp. to send one of its officials to become a member of the scandal-hit public broadcaster's board of directors, informed sources said Tuesday. Toyota will consider whether to dispatch a senior managing director-level official to be an NHK board member, the sources said, adding it would be the first time a private company employee had become a board member of the public broadcaster. NHK, which the government is considering reforming, hopes to introduce Toyota-style management techniques to boost its efficiency, they said. Toyota has sent officials to a number of companies to become top executives, including the vice president of Japan Post and the president of Central Japan International Airport Co., with many of them subsequently recognized for having improved the efficiency of the companies. NHK currently has eight board members under its chairman and vice chairman. The members are appointed by the chairman with the agreement of its management committee, which is the top decision-making body of the broadcaster. NHK's operations are funded by viewer fees collected from all Japanese households with TV sets, but currently about 30 percent of such households required under the Broadcast Law to pay refuse to do so. A series of scandals at NHK last year led to a sharp increase in the number of people refusing to pay them. |