Company plans
to launch more
Japanese TV
programming

Registered to do business in Hawaii in August, the company will launch programming March 25. A spokeswoman declined to release more information before a news conference scheduled for next Thursday.

"The product is programming they're bringing in by tape from Japan," said Lonnie Shupp, senior director of programming for Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

Pacific TV will start by airing three hours of programming daily from 7 to 10 p.m. on Oceanic Channel 77, which is currently dark. The programming may be expanded or it may be shifted to another channel, Shupp said.

The shows have been selected from Japan's major commercial broadcasting stations and have never aired in Hawaii, according to a Pacific TV statement.

Oceanic will "wrap" the three hours with other programming from other sources, Shupp said.

Hawaii's best-known provider of Japanese programming is KIKU-TV, UHF Channel 20, also carried by Oceanic Time Warner. The cable company carries varied Japanese programming on (Channel) 78 Hawaii; on the International Channel at 118 on the dial; on Channel 332, which offers free-on-demand anime, or Japanese animated shows; and on the three Nippon Golden Network premium channels, 677, 678 and 679.

The Japanese programming on Channel 78 may remain limited to a half-hour-a-week airing of "Kamen Rider," because a particular TV businesswoman has an affinity for campy heroes fighting monsters.

"Since I'm on this superhero thing and I have the rights to 'Kamen Rider' ..." laughed Joanne Ninomiya, president of JN Productions Inc. Ninomiya has a deal with Oceanic to air the show once a week.

Her company has been behind the success in Hawaii of Japanese superhero shows such as "Kikaida" since the 1970s. JN Productions provides translation services for primarily Japanese productions for the broadcast and home-entertainment industries.