WakuWaku Japan is a Japanese pay television channel that broadcasts Japanese programs to overseas viewers in Asia. The channel broadcasts only Japanese programs 24 hours a day. Malay, Mandarin, and English language versions of these programs are broadcast on this channel. Subtitles and dubbing are available in some countries.
History
Before WakuWaku Japan was launched, SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation started the channel project in 2011. WakuWaku means "pleasing" or "thrilling" in Japanese. In order to keep everything on track, the Japanese government allocated funds amounting to 15.5 billion yen to finance the channel. These funds were to be used for the cost of dubbing and making subtitles, as well as the costs of promotion, administration and production. On 22 February 2014, at 17:00 JKT, WakuWaku Japan officially launched in Indonesia with its first program, WakuWaku Japan Music Festival. On its first broadcasting day, WakuWaku Japan used the 12-hour system, but when it was launched in Myanmar, it changed to the 24-hour system; it reverted to the 12-hour system on 29 February 2016. In Indonesia, the channel was reverted to 24-hour system on 27 February 2017; later reverted to 12-hour system in January 2018. At that time, the channel was only available on Indovision and OkeVision. On 1 June 2014, WakuWaku Japan became available on Transvision, OrangeTV, BiG TV and First Media. On the same day at 06:00 MMT, WakuWaku Japan officially launched in Myanmar, though it was only available on 4TV, a Burmese terrestrial pay television service. On 4 March 2015, SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation planned to expand Japanese content to overseas by establishing WakuWaku Japan Corporation. On 1 July 2015, WakuWaku Japan Corporation was officially established, taking over its ownership from SKY PerfectJSAT Corporation. On 6 July 2015, at 17:00 SGT, WakuWaku Japan officially launched in Singapore and is currently available on Singtel TV and StarHub TV. On 26 January 2016, WakuWaku Japan announced that it will begin broadcasting in Thailand on 26 March, through Ch3SD, a Thai terrestrial pay television service. On 26 March, WakuWaku Japan began temporarily broadcast in Thailand until 27 March under the name 'WakuWaku Japan Hour', which broadcast from 09:00 until 10:30. On 28 July 2016, WakuWaku Japan announced that it will begin broadcasting in Taiwan in September. It was officially launched in Taiwan on 1 September 2016, at 19:00 NST, with its first program, Shiki-Oriori: Japan Food & Festival. WakuWaku Japan becomes the first Japanese entertainment TV channel to launch in Sri Lanka along with its debut on Dialog TV on 7 October 2016. On 8 November 2016, WakuWaku Japan announced that it will begin broadcasting in Vietnam through VTVcab, a Vietnamese cable pay television service. On 1 December, WakuWaku Japan will begin temporarily airing in Vietnam under the name 'WakuWaku Japan Hour', from 18:00 until 21:00 on three different channels are: VTVcab22 LIFE TV, VTVcab8 BiBi, and VTVcab Technical. But on 1 April 2018, WakuWaku Japan officially launched in Vietnam, but available on VTVcab and Next TV. It was announced on 6 January 2017, WakuWaku Japan will begin broadcasting in Mongolia through Univision and DDish TV. On 25 March, WakuWaku Japan officially launched their mascots, Waa and Kuu, to coincide with the premiere of original-produced kids program, WakuWaku be Ponckickies. In July2017 in Taiwan, WakuWaku Japan officially available on Taiwan Broadcasting Communications.
Programming
WakuWaku Japan has original programming oriented towards music, sports and children's content. They also rebroadcast imported programs from a variety of genres, including anime, superhero programs like Kamen Rider, live-action drama series, culture programs, entertainment shows like Iron Chef, sports and documentary series. WakuWaku Japan also re-broadcasts music programs and has a portion of re-broadcast programming set aside for children under the block name WakuWaku Kids, as well as an entertainment block called NHK Family Time.. In the Drama section, currently there are four time slots: Drama Woman, which broadcasts NHK's Asadora; Drama Legend, which broadcasts Japanese dramas from the 1990s to the 2000s; Drama Hits, which broadcasts Japanese dramas; and Drama NEO, which broadcasts the latest Japanese drama every Friday night.
