The final episode of the 2020 Taiga drama Kirin ga Kuru airs this week.

Unfortunately, KIKU will not be airing a Taiga drama in 2021 because NHK recently informed us they would not be licensing this show outside Japan at this time.

The last time this happened was two years ago when the Taiga drama contained Olympics footage we were prohibited from airing in the U.S. We aired Oshin in its place and many of you shared with us how much you enjoyed seeing Oshin again or for the first time.

Because of your positive response to Oshin, we searched for and found another nostalgic drama to share with you. This one is titled Kita no Kuni Kara (From the Northern Country) and is about a family that starts life over in the town of Furano in Hokkaido. It will begin on Tuesday, April 6. We hope you enjoy it!

Please join us for a week of special programs to celebrate the New Year. Each night from January 1-7, KIKU will air specials ranging from mysteries to the mysterious, beloved favorites to soon-to-become new favorites, and dramas featuring well-known, as well as unlikely stars.

One program you will not see is the Red and White Song Contest (Kohaku Utagassen). The pandemic altered the format of the song contest, eliminating a live audience. With a lack of details about the new format and participants, we made the heartbreaking and tough decision to forego the program in 2021.

In the Chinese zodiac, 2021 is the year of the ox. The ox is known for facing difficulties fearlessly and for its traits of endurance and determination. No matter what year you were born, these are qualities we could all benefit from in 2021.

Happy New Year to all of you and please stay healthy and safe.

For more information about the special programs, please click here.

Last Friday night at 10pm, we had a power outage while some equipment maintenance was being performed. When power was restored a few hours later, we worked on getting all our signals back up, and by Saturday morning, we confirmed our over-the-air signal was fine, as were the feeds going to Charter and Hawaiian Tel cable systems. (DISH and DirecTV take our over-the-air signal.)

However, later in the day we  learned that DISH and DirecTV subscribers were not getting audio due to a system incompatibility between the audio we feed and the audio they process.

That problem has since been resolved. However, if you are still having audio problems, please send me an email (pkihara@kikutv.com) to let me know. In your email, please let me know how you are receiving KIKU: over the air, by cable (Charter or Hawaiian Tel), or by satellite (DISH or DirecTV). Thank you.

Many viewers write me with their suggestions to re-air programs we aired in the past. I receive suggestions all the time from people asking us to replay old taiga dramas or Oshin or old samurai dramas. Conversely, I also receive comments asking why we are re-airing programs we recently aired, like Lone Wolf with Cub or Seven Detectives.

I thought it would help to explain why we can re-air some programs and cannot re-air others.

You see, we don’t own the programs we air. We license them from rights holders and each program we license comes with strict terms that govern the dates and number of times we must run the program. This is why we can’t just pull old programs we’ve aired before off the shelf to air again anytime we choose. Once a license expires, we don’t have that option. We would need to re-license the programs and pay a fee all over again. The programs we are re-airing right now fall within our license agreement terms and have to be re-aired.

Still, I love hearing your suggestions about programs you’d like to see. It helps serve as a guide when we are researching new programs to license. Please keep your suggestions coming.

Ja ne, Phyllis

For the past several months, announcements about the 2020 Census have been broadcast on KIKU-TV and many other media. These announcements remind us to participate in the 2020 Census, an event that takes place only once every 10 years. It’s important that every person living here is counted because the results determine funding for our communities, our public services, our neighborhoods, and even our representation in Washington D.C.

Last week it was announced that the deadline for gathering census data has been changed to September 30, 2020. This is a full month earlier than the previous deadline and includes counting by phone, on-line- and door-to-door!

If you haven’t already been counted, there is still time to do so. Go to 2020census.gov. You will find instructions in English as well as many other languages. Be counted. It’s important.

Ja ne,

Phyllis