Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Tokyo, March 13 Kyodo - Japan Broadcasting Corp. will allow a private group to use a transmitting station for a shortwave radio service called “Shiokaze,” which sends family messages to possibly surviving Japanese abductees in North Korea, the public broadcaster known as NHK said Tuesday.
As the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry reportedly plans to grant a radio station license to the group, called the Investigation Commission on Missing Japanese Probably Related to North Korea, the move would allow the entity to broadcast the messages with a larger output than currently.
It is rare for a facility used by NHK to be lent to a private group. The group, NHK and KDDI Corp., which owns the transmitting station in Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, exchanged a memorandum last Friday on the lease of part of the facility from March 26 to Oct. 28, according to NHK.
NHK is using the facility for overseas shortwave radio services. The time of the lease is likely to be set from 5:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. everyday. The facility has 19 antennas over which NHK has exclusive rights of use.
NHK has studied the feasibility of allowing use of part of the facility since Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga expressed willingness last year to allow Shiokaze to use some NHK facilities as a way to support the group.
(Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 1315 gmt 13 Mar 07 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)