Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010

It used to be that you could escape NHK fee collectors by claiming you don’t own a TV. No longer. The Tokyo Shimbun reports that a young woman who recently moved to the capital was told by an NHK rep that she had to cough up because her one-seg cellphone has TV capabilities. Predictably, 2channel users were furious:

• What kind of fraud is this?
• I’m glad I have an iPhone
• Crap like this is why I picked a phone without one-seg
• NHK is becoming more and more like the yakuza
• NHK is just teaming up with the cellphone makers so they can take money from people who don’t watch TV, too
• Demanding money for shows I don’t even watch? That’s the kind of reasoning organized crime groups use
• When you buy the cellphone, do they tell you that in addition to the usual charges, you’ll have to pay NHK? If not, then isn’t it the cellphone companies who ought to pay?
• Even though I don’t have a TV or a cellphone, I’ve been told, “You’ve got a PC right? If you attach a tuner to it, you can watch TV, so please pay up.”