Yoshihiko Hibi

Yoshihiko Hibi is the head of the Learning Media Division at the NHK Educational Corporation and leads the project team developing advanced audio-visual contents for digital media. The NHK Educational Corporation is the most important provider of content to NHK’s Educational TV channel. NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai: Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is Japan’s largest broadcasting organisation and sole public broadcaster. NHK operates five television and three radio channels including online services in Japan.

Yoshihiko Hibi joined NHK in 1980. He is a producer of numerous educational TV programmes (science, social studies and history) and special documentaries.

In 1989, he launched the production of the integrated programmes for both TV broadcasting and the educational use of computers. In 1991, he won the special prize at the Montreux Electronic Cinema Festival (Switzerland) for these programmes. It should be mentioned that this was an innovative attempt to produce interactive TV well before the appearance of the Internet or QuickTime.

Besides working as an NHK producer, he held the professorial chair for the Media Literacy course in the Faculty of Education of the University of Tokyo from 1998 to 2004. He has also been a member of the subdivision committee of The Central Council for Education (established in the Ministry of Education) from 2004 to 2007. The Central Council for Education is an organisation that carries out research and deliberates on important matters related to the promotion of education.

Recently, from 2007 to 2009, he was the Secretary General of the Japan Prize International Contest for Educational Media. During this period, he redeveloped this renowned contest that specialises in educational media around the world. As the digital era evolves, broadcasting and telecommunications continue to converge, and the world becomes truly borderless. Hibi thinks it is important to continue to provide high-quality content in every format to people of all ages and interests.