On Thursday, March 31, 2011 3:32:59 PM UTC+9, The 2-Belo wrote:
> We have a report from the fj.life.in-japan Dynamics Officer that Declan Murphy
> has exploded. Flight director confirms that:
> 
> >On Mar 30, 9:32?am, The 2-Belo <the2...@msdREMOVETHIS.biglobe.ne.jp>
> >wrote:
> >> We have a report from the fj.life.in-japan Dynamics Officer that Declan Murphy
> >> has exploded. Flight director confirms that:
> >>
> >> >NHK's budget should come out of general tax revenue,
> >> >in much the same way as Australia's ABC.
> >>
> >> I once thought this way, but the way I see it, in its current state NHK doesn't
> >> have to worry about the government slashing funding somewhere down the line,
> >> like the United States is currently trying to do with PBS. (Someone correct me
> >> if I've got it wrong here...) I sort of considered the fees a "TV tax" anyway,
> >> and admittedly my family and I watch a whole hell of a lot of NHK.
> >
> >I guess it is conceivable that sometime/somehow in the future funding
> >could be slashed, though unlikely. Not sure whether how much that
> >small army of licence fee collectors are paid, but would imagine there
> >is some room for economizing. 
> 
> Now that they've instituted a bank account withdrawal system to make it more
> painless and keep it in the background, I figured they'd reduced the number of
> collectors. I've got to think that's been less of a financial burden on them.
> 

I believe they did, in fact, get rid of the people that came around every other month (or whatever) for collections.  They still send people around to find new blood, however.