The head of Japan's public broadcaster NHK announced his resignation on Monday to take responsibility for reporters' alleged involvement in insider trading.
"We damaged the trust of viewers. As the head of those who are responsible for operations, I took what happened seriously," NHK President Genichi Hashimoto told a news conference. "I've already informed the management committee about my intention to resign," Hashimoto said.
Two reporters and one director of the network have been investigated by the government's securities watchdog on suspicion of insider trading, NHK said last week.
The three are a 33-year-old reporter at NHK's headquarters in Tokyo, a 30-year-old reporter at a provincial broadcast station and a 40-year-old director at another station. They allegedly bought 1,000 to 3,000 shares each in a popular restaurant chain on March 8 when an exclusive report about its plan to absorb a sushi group was broadcast by NHK. They sold the stocks the next day and earned between 100,000 and 400,000 yen (3,750 dollars) in profits each, according to NHK.
Two of the three employees have admitted obtaining the corporate information through NHK's internal news editing system and making the stock purchases shortly before it was broadcast.
NHK said on Saturday that it would survey the stock trading of all of its 11,000 employees after the government urged NHK to "immediately" check all employees in the news division. NHK, which is funded by mandatory viewers' fees, has faced a series of scandals in recent years including over allegedly toning down a programme on Japan's World War II atrocities under pressure from former premier Shinzo Abe.
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