ANKARA

An executive at Japan’s public broadcaster NHK resigned on Tuesday after a Chinese staffer made unscripted remarks during an overseas radio broadcast, describing the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands as Chinese territory. The incident occurred during an Aug. 19 broadcast, NHK announced.

The broadcaster's board director, responsible for overseeing multilingual broadcasting, stepped down the same day to take responsibility for the incident, NHK President Nobuo Inaba stated at a press conference, as reported by Kyodo News.

The contract worker, in his 40s, went off-script for approximately 20 seconds, claiming the islands—called Diaoyu in China—belong to China. His remarks followed a news report on graffiti at Tokyo’s war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, further complicating the sensitive territorial dispute between Japan and China over the East China Sea islets.

The staffer also referenced Japan’s wartime history, urging listeners not to forget the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 or the issue of wartime "comfort women" procured for Japanese military brothels.

In response to the controversy, NHK has shifted to airing prerecorded news in Chinese.