Japanese service in 'RRI' attracts listeners

Japanese service in 'RRI' attracts listeners

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The same soft but firm voice opens each Japanese Service
broadcast at state radio station RRI with the words, "Kocira wa
Indonesia no ko desu (This is the Voice of Indonesia)". The
service has been broadcast around the world every Monday and
Friday at 6:30 p.m. for much of the last three decades.

The voice belongs to 75-year-old Machiko Katagiri, the
Japanese-born broadcaster who has hosted the service since
September 1977.

The Japanese Service is one of nine foreign language services
that make up RRI's Overseas Service, also called the Voice of
Indonesia. The other foreign language services are English,
Spanish, German, French, Korean, Malay, Thai, Mandarin and
Arabic.

Katagiri broadcasts not only the news, but introduces
listeners to Indonesian music and language as well.

Among the Japanese Service's various programs, Katagiri said
the 20-minute Hito to Krasi (People and Life), which looks at
daily life in Indonesia, was the most popular.

"Japanese listeners are interested in the lives of
Indonesians, especially ordinary people. Their stories touch the
hearts of listeners because they tend to communicate the
magnificent life principles held by poor Indonesians," she said,
adding that she was also responsible for the reporting and
scriptwriting for the show.

Katagiri is married to an Indonesian and has taken Indonesian
citizenship. She believes the service helps counter some of the
bias of foreign news reporting on Indonesia that reaches most
Japanese around the world.

"We want to tell the Indonesian side of stories. We want to
explain the cultural and historical backgrounds of a news story,"
she said.

The coordinator of the program, Haruyo Tadera, whose
Indonesian name is Hariyati Prabowo, said the Japanese Service
set itself apart from the other foreign language services.

"The other foreign services do not do the same thing as us;
they do not do field reporting," said the 62-year-old.

However, the future of the Japanese Service is in doubt
because of the difficulty in finding replacements for Katagiri
and Hariyati.

"It is very difficult to find a Japanese native speaker to
replace me because RRI only offers a small honorarium," Katagiri
said.

Hariyati said the monthly operational budget for the service
was Rp 500,000 (US$45), which was not enough to attract Japanese
native speakers to host the program.

Katagiri has suggested that when she and Hariyati decide to
retire, they be replaced by the Indonesian staff who have helped
shape the service rather than by native speakers.

"This program has successfully attracted thousands of Japanese
listeners around the globe .... When it first went on the air, we
received thousands of letters every month. Since the Internet era
began in the 1990s, the number of listeners has fallen to only a
few dozen. But it is still the most popular program compared to
other foreign language services broadcast by RRI," she said.
(006)