Main transmitter and 39 relay stations across Akita Prefecture
Technology staff
38
Plus about twenty contractor technicians
A broader perspective.
Relay networks run by a smaller team / Transmission paths chosen by consequence / Staying on air through power loss and snow / Licences, broadcast duties and carrier contracts / Technology spending in a shrinking market
I decide which parts of a rural broadcast network must survive the worst night, and I tell the board honestly what the remaining budget can protect.
I am chief technology officer and an executive officer of Kazaminato Broadcasting, an unlisted commercial television station in Akita affiliated with a national network. We broadcast from a main transmitter and 39 relay stations, many on mountain sites reached in winter only by snow vehicle, to about 380,000 households. Revenue for the year ended March 2026 was ¥6.4 billion, down from ¥8.3 billion in 2008. I lead 38 technology staff through four managers, with about twenty contractor technicians, an operating budget of ¥610 million and capital spending that averages ¥420 million a year.
I started in April 1987 as a transmission engineer at a regional telephone carrier, maintaining microwave routes across northern Tohoku. Eight years installing transmitters for broadcasters followed, and in 2002 I joined Kazaminato to build its digital relay network. I have since watched our relay team fall from fourteen engineers in 2010 to nine, with three more due to retire by 2027. That arithmetic shapes most of my decisions. A site we cannot reach, staff or afford to repair is not protected, whatever the network diagram suggests.
Three recent decisions show the approach. We renewed eight ageing relay stations and moved two small valleys to fibre delivery, after keeping a third on air because its fibre route was unsafe. We kept our own microwave links on the backbone while moving fourteen spur feeds to leased circuits. We designed a lower-quality emergency mode for our news stream so that it stayed available when demand rose fifteenfold. In each case someone I respect disagreed, and each decision gave something up.
Eleven relay stations, three different answers
Renewing all eleven stations would have cost ¥236 million. We renewed nine for ¥185 million, moved two valleys of 400 households to fibre for ¥26 million and saved about ¥9.4 million a year in maintenance and power.
Radio links where failure costs most
Twelve microwave hops, including the backbone that serves 86% of households, were renewed for ¥128 million; fourteen spur feeds moved to leased circuits. Over ten years the costs nearly balance. The reason was a smaller team, and one shared pole route still failed for 47 minutes.
A plainer stream that stayed up
During a 31-hour heavy-rain emergency in August 2025, our news stream peaked at 58,000 concurrent viewers in a single lower-quality rendition. Delivery cost ¥2.1 million rather than an estimated ¥7.6 million, and we gave up about ¥3.2 million of advertising.
Current focus
I am preparing our next five-year renewal plan for the relay network around the engineers we will actually have in 2030, including which sites a neighbouring broadcaster could maintain for us and which we should maintain for them.
Conversations I welcome
I am seeking a first outside directorship at a Japanese company that maintains field assets in difficult terrain with a shrinking technical workforce. I can offer twenty-two days a year, subject to my president's written consent and a review of our counterparties.
The leadership record
Trusted with consequential decisions.
Formation
Bachelor of engineering in communications and electronic engineeringYasunagi Institute of Technology · 1987
Naomi's papers always include a sentence telling the board what the investment will not protect. Directors found that uncomfortable at first. Now they ask for it from every division.
I am seeking a first outside directorship at a Japanese company that maintains field assets in difficult terrain with a shrinking technical workforce. I can offer twenty-two days a year, subject to my president's written consent and a review of our counterparties.
