This series is the third set of productions of the ASEAN Now and the Future project.
The first series produced in November, 2017, ASEAN Now and the Future – Connectivity and Economic Corridors, was made on a common theme together with 4 ASEAN TV stations to mark ASEAN’s fiftieth anniversary. The four stations, based in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, each reported on cooperative ties between Japan and ASEAN in their respective countries and described how the East-West and Southern economic corridors across Indochina had been affecting regional growth and the lives of the local people. The 4 stations broadcast their programs domestically in their own language and the series was also broadcast worldwide in English on NHK World.
The second series, in October, 2019, was made by stations in the 5 ASEAN countries of Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand under the joint title of ASEAN Now and the Future II – Discover New Buena Vista. NHK International dispatched Japanese program production experts to furnish advice and each station was invited to introduce some of the lesser known attractions of its country. Again, the stations broadcast their programs domestically in their own language and the series was also broadcast worldwide in English on NHK World.
This third set of programs in the series is entitled ASEAN Now and the Future III – Plastics in the Ocean, and consists of TV programs made by broadcasting stations in the four ASEAN countries of Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand with support again provided by Japanese program production experts dispatched from NHK International. Each station will report on the rapidly worsening problems confronting their respective countries due to the increase of plastic waste in the oceans and some distinctive measures now being adopted to tackle them. Once more, the stations will broadcast their programs domestically in their own language and the series will also be broadcast worldwide in English on NHK World.