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- The 1997 broadcast incident
Public record
685 people went to hospital after episode 38 on 16 Dec 1997; the guidelines followed on 8 Apr 1998 and in ITU-R BT.1702 of 2005
Official documents only: a ministry report, broadcaster notices and council minutes, a joint broadcasting guideline and an ITU recommendation; no press accounts.
Timeline
12 dated entries from 9 bodies, December 1997 to February 2015
| Date | What the document says | Body | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Dec 1997 | Episode 38 of the animated series Pocket Monsters is broadcast on six stations (Hokkaido, Tokyo, Aichi, Osaka, Okayama-Kagawa, Fukuoka) on a Tuesday from 6:30 pm. Household rating in the Kanto area 16.5 percent, about 4.6 million households. Symptoms cluster at about 6:50 pm. | Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications study group, final report, chapter 1 | soumu.go.jp, report of 26 Jun 1998, chapter 1 |
| 17 Dec 1997 | 685 people nationwide had been taken to hospital by ambulance and treated, as counted by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency at 5 pm on 17 Dec 1997. Syndicated broadcasts of the programme were stopped and the TV Tokyo network suspended further episodes. | Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications study group, final report, chapter 1 | soumu.go.jp, report of 26 Jun 1998, chapter 1 |
| 24 Dec 1997 | The Broadcast Standards Council of the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association adopts an agreement: programmes that make heavy use of flashes, rapidly blinking light images or extremely short shots are to be handled with particular care for the time being. Sent to member stations and to animation production companies. | Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association, Broadcast Standards Council | TV Tokyo public relations notice of 26 Dec 1997 (tv-tokyo.co.jp), which reproduces the agreement |
| 26 Dec 1997 | TV Tokyo announces two-person study teams: to the United Kingdom from 6 Jan 1998 for about ten days (ITC and BBC) and to the United States from 12 Jan 1998 for about ten days (FCC and the three networks), to study broadcast and production guidelines. | TV Tokyo | TV Tokyo public relations notice of 26 Dec 1997 (tv-tokyo.co.jp) |
| 13 Feb 1998 | TV Tokyo reports its investigation to the animation special subcommittee of the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association, as told to the station's programme council on 12 Mar 1998. | TV Tokyo Broadcast Programme Council, meeting 226 | TV Tokyo programme council report no. 226 (tv-tokyo.co.jp) |
| 12 Mar 1998 | Meeting 226 of the TV Tokyo Broadcast Programme Council hears the station's plan: finish its own guideline after the NHK and commercial broadcasters' study group and the ministries' interim reports, broadcast a verification programme first, then resume with an apology and viewing cautions. Council members ask for a careful match with the NHK and JBA guideline and a response plan for any recurrence. | TV Tokyo Broadcast Programme Council | TV Tokyo programme council report no. 226 (tv-tokyo.co.jp) |
| 8 Apr 1998 | NHK and the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association issue the joint guideline on visual techniques in animation and similar programmes (アニメーション等の映像手法について). Its preamble cites the 1997 incident and the 2005 ITU-R guidance appears in the revised text. Dated 8 Apr 1998, partly revised 1 Apr 2006. | NHK and the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association | Text of the guideline as exhibit to a cable operator's programme standards (tcnet.ne.jp PDF); date lines read from the document |
| 9 Apr 1998 | TV Tokyo publishes its own production guideline for animation: no more than one flash per one third of a second (8 film frames or 10 television frames); the same limit for rapid cuts; no flashes or cuts in a single red; regular high-contrast patterns such as stripes and spirals avoided as a rule. The station also announces a flicker detector (アニメチェッカー) and a verification programme for 11 Apr 1998, 1:00 to 1:55 pm. | TV Tokyo | TV Tokyo public relations notice of 9 Apr 1998 (tv-tokyo.co.jp) |
| Apr 1998 | The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications study group on broadcasting and visual function (放送と視聴覚機能に関する検討会), set up in December 1997, publishes an interim report on cel animation techniques. | Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications study group | soumu.go.jp, final report of 26 Jun 1998, introduction |
| 26 Jun 1998 | The study group publishes its final report in seven chapters: background, display techniques, effects on the body (with a summary of the Ministry of Health and Welfare research group), display practice in Japan and abroad (ITC and BBC rules), viewing environment, recommendations, and future issues. | Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications study group | soumu.go.jp, report of 26 Jun 1998, contents page and introduction |
| Feb 2005 | ITU-R Recommendation BT.1702, Guidance for the reduction of photosensitive epileptic seizures caused by television, is approved (BT.1702-0). Revised 07/2018 (BT.1702-1), 10/2019 (BT.1702-2) and 11/2023 (BT.1702-3, in force). | International Telecommunication Union, Radiocommunication Sector | itu.int recommendation page R-REC-BT.1702 |
| 27 Feb 2015 | The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications asks broadcasters that reported a breach of their own programme standards, after flashing images that may have conflicted with the NHK and JBA guideline, to take care and set up measures against recurrence; it also asks the satellite and cable broadcasting associations to study prevention. | Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Information and Communications Bureau | soumu.go.jp press release of 27 Feb 2015 |
Reading the sources
The ministry report and the broadcaster pages are in Japanese
The figures above (six stations, a 16.5 percent rating, about 4.6 million households, 685 people taken to hospital by 5 pm the next day) come from chapter 1 of the final report of the study group set up by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, published 26 Jun 1998 and still served by its successor ministry. TV Tokyo's own notices of 26 Dec 1997, 12 Mar 1998 and 9 Apr 1998 supply the broadcaster side. The joint NHK and commercial broadcasters' guideline is dated 8 Apr 1998 with a partial revision on 1 Apr 2006; the copy read was an exhibit to a cable operator's programme standards, and the rule text itself was not legible in that copy, so only its dates and title are stated here. The ITU recommendation page lists four versions, the first approved in February 2005.
Figures for injuries vary between later accounts; this page keeps to the count the government report gives, with its time stamp.