🎤 In Conversation with Yuko Fukuyama – NHK

Public media around the world now face challenges like reduced funding, smaller broadcasting slots, and lower viewer engagement. This trend, however, prompts producers to reflect on their fundamental motivation. Sunnyside of the Doc offers a platform to discuss the industry's issues and to re-affirm the power of storytelling. The event encourages frank debates on engaging content and fosters hope for the industry's future. I expect it provides opportunities for networking, inspiring ideas, and expanding our horizons in these challenging times.

The survival of our industry may be dependent on our efforts to create innovative content that appeals to families and youth. In 2026, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Antoni Gaudí's death, we will finish a project for the Sagrada Familia. The project will feature archival footage of the construction of the church that NHK has recorded over the last 40 years, as well as drone footage captured with NHK R&D lab's first-ever 8K x 8K VR camera. Using the stunning image, we are planning to develop immersive content that enhance viewer experience, in addition to our primary objective of producing TV programs. To achieve this goal, we are seeking collaborators from wider industries.

NHK and Sunny Side share a 20-year partnership. Why did you choose this event to celebrate such a symbolic centenary, and what do you hope to gain in terms of professional exchange?

Since Sunnyside brings together genuinely passionate documentary players, we think it’s the perfect place to celebrate the centenary of Japanese broadcasting. Since its first international co-production in 1980, NHK has collaborated on numerous documentaries, mainly science, history and natural history, which are our primary areas of focus for co-productions, with various partners from around the world who provide a wide range of values. Their assistance allowed us to effectively complete many prominent projects. We would like to take this opportunity to convey our sincere appreciation to our partners past and present.

AI is infiltrating our daily lives faster than expected. Undoubtedly, using AI provides a lot of benefits, but we must have literacy about it. Since fake news and disinformation are becoming more rampant today, NHK is developing services that take advantage of AI.
As a public media company, we have the responsibility to acknowledge its shortcomings and make efforts in refining the quality of information fed to AI, so that it can contribute to creating innovative storytelling that is reliable and thought-provoking.

As for our projects, we hope to seek co-production of sequels to our major series like Amazing Dinoworld and Nature's Hidden Miracles, for which we will again deploy our unique technology to present never-before-seen images. To enrich our content for international audiences, we wish to work with foreign partners from early stages of development.
As for partner-originated projects, we're interested in access to people and places challenging for us to cover on our own. We also want to engage in projects in which we can collaborate from early stages, for example, early enough to plan together location filming in Japan. We hope we can enhance production capabilities by working more closely with our partners.