Ok Ewok, I will spell it out for you, but I know you can understand Japanese so I will inform about how the the legal Justice system works.
This is not the legal 'justice' system, its the legal system. Don't mix it up with the term 'criminal justice'.
The point here is one of very specific legalities, and you have to be precise or else its meaningless. We agree on two points;
) There is a responsibility to enter into a contract
) There is no penalty for not entering into a contract
Payment of fees is not mentioned for a good reason - that is the contract. The point where NHK is legally able to force people to pay is by taking signed copies of legal contracts stating that the individuals will pay NHK an agreed amount to court, and the defendants are forced to pay as they AGREED to pay - not because the law says they have to.
This. is. the. key.
The added fact that this law has no penalty (which is not uncommon as it is not a criminal law but a regulatory law) only reinforces the point that NHK has no legal recourse for being able to force people who have not taken a contract with NHK to pay, but also as recently as March this year the government discussed changing the current law to allow NHK to be able to force people to pay.
If they are considering changing the law to allow NHK to force people to change, doesn't that imply that they are unable to force people to pay at present?
You keep saying about "your" future, are you that short sighted to see that what ever foriegn people do is magnified purely by the fact that we are not Japanese?
That's just nonsensical :?
Which I might add does affect our future as a whole b/c of the changes to the constitution that government find so easy to do when it regards foreigners.
Sorry, you'll have to explain that one to me. Is this reference to the language in which it was written? (ie. heavy use of terms like 日本国民, わが国 etc, suggesting that the rights allowed by the constitution do not apply to all people in Japan, but only the Japanese?)
Now am I to assume that when you were at homestay that those families refused to pay the NHK fees going off your previous statements reagarding not knowing anyone who pays for NHK? But yet you watched these programs as did your homestay family? Again I find this quite hypocritical, as the scandles only happend a little over a year ago, which would not be the reason for not paying like you said.
That was 4 years ago and I didn't really ask at the time. Even then I didn't watch NHK - mainly Fuji TV and TV Tokyo.
Go ask a foriegner who came here by himself and how hard it was to get an appartment on your own with out the help of another Japanese?
Did that when I came here a second time on my own.
How about getting a credit card without a Japanese sponser?
Done that, only had one issue which was my first bank denying me use of a debit card instead of a credit card...
Another example, although this has never happened to me, but the refusal of foriengers into bath houses in some areas, this was brought about by unrulely gaijin ruining it for others.
Been to plenty of sento in the 'burbs of Tokyo, onsen out on the side of mountains in the middle of nowhere... one little sento in a town somewhere in southern Miyagi-ken even had a few tatooed guys who were fun to talk to.
I've also been able to get my licence, hire cars and bikes, stay in hotels, shop online, etc etc. My foreignness has never been an issue, I think that being polite and having done the hard work of studying Japanese before trying to live here helped the most in that.
Foreigners not paying NHK fees is a topic I have not seen once on TV (ironic), in the newspapers or even the tabloid rags - nothing. While you may have a point on foreigners who leave the country while not paying rent, which is illegally and borderline criminal, and is the kind of thing that really does damage the image of foreigners.