In Japan, a household that has a TV has to pay TV reception fees to NHK (Japan's national public broadcasting organization). It costs 1,260 yen ($10.68 €9.32) per month. As of 2013, 4.628 million households have TV sets, and 74.8% of them (3.461 million) paid the fees. In other words, some people watch TV without the fee. It is illegal. Every year some free-riders are sued by NHK, and the viewers usually lose cases.
In Okinawa, the rate is low. There are many U.S. military bases in Okinawa, and they refuse to pay the TV reception fees.
Figure : Rate of people who pay TV reception fees by prefecture
| Prefecture | Rate (%) |
| Akita | 96.5 |
| Shimane | 93.8 |
| Niigata | 92.3 |
| Tottori | 90.7 |
| Yamagata | 90.6 |
| Iwate | 89.8 |
| Aomori | 89.4 |
| Toyama | 89.3 |
| Yamaguchi | 88.6 |
| Fukui | 88.1 |
| Gifu | 87.0 |
| Nagano | 85.7 |
| Hiroshima | 84.7 |
| Tochigi | 84.3 |
| Kagoshima | 84.3 |
| Fukushima | 84.2 |
| Shizuoka | 83.9 |
| Ishikawa | 83.5 |
| Gunma | 83.4 |
| Nagasaki | 82.7 |
| Saga | 81.6 |
| Ibaraki | 81.5 |
| Wakayama | 81.4 |
| Ehime | 81.3 |
| Kagawa | 81.2 |
| Okayama | 81.1 |
| Yamanashi | 81.0 |
| Mie | 80.8 |
| Miyagi | 80.5 |
| Miyazaki | 80.0 |
| Tokushima | 79.0 |
| Kumamoto | 78.6 |
| Aichi | 77.0 |
| Shiga | 76.4 |
| Saitama | 76.2 |
| Kochi | 75.9 |
| Nara | 75.3 |
| Chiba | 74.7 |
| Oita | 74.2 |
| Kanagawa | 72.9 |
| Fukuoka | 71.5 |
| Hyogo | 70.0 |
| Kyoto | 69.0 |
| Hokkaido | 65.2 |
| Tokyo | 63.3 |
| Osaka | 59.1 |
| Okinawa | 45.0 |
Source is NHK.
pid.nhk.or.jp/jushinryo/
pid.nhk.or.jp/jushinryo/pdf/osirase_siharairitu25.pdf
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