How to watch Japanese channels?

5 comments

1. You need a TV tuner, right.
   Unfortunately, due to parts shortage, most of them went way up in price. Currently cheapest (and least shittiest) is the Panasonic OEM version: https://kakaku.com/item/K0001067540/

   Yes, it says it supports 4K broadcasting etc, but it also does regular off-air reception too. You will need an antenna either in the wall or a rabbit ears type thing bought online/in any electronic store.

2. just get a japanese tv if you want to watch japanese tv. the price of the extras is nearly the same price as a decent tv

3. Get a TV tuner.

   It plugs into your TV usually via HDMI, and then there’s a wall circular cable that plugs into the tuner. Switch the TV to the tuner’s connection (for example HDMI 1 or 2 or whatever) and it should work

4. So…what do you want to watch?

   If you like J-Dramas, most of the ones broadcast on TV will end up either on Hulu or Amazon Prime. There are other Japanese streaming channels such as U-Next or d-TV that also have a lot of content. Same goes for anime.

   Sports you can also stream, I believe DAZN is the best option but there’s other options as well.

   For news, there’s at least one 24-hr streaming news channel on YouTube.

   What I’m getting at is depending on what you want to watch, you may not need a TV tuner. I dunno what TV you have, but if it has Google TV you can create a Japanese account and be able to download all the streaming apps to it. Or get a Fire Stick from Amazon, or a cheap video game system (at least PS4 or Xbox One). Just something to consider.

5. You can get an internet TV package like Hikari TV, then all you need is an internet connection.

   EDIT – seems you still need a tuner, but you can rent it.