NHK, Japan``s influential public broadcasting company, has been facing an increasing number of accusations of the political intervention by the state since the inauguration of the second Abe Shinz? cabinet in 2012. Many argue that NHK is radically shifting to the right under pressure from the neo-nationalist government and it is becoming “the public relations department of the state.” The legal system that allows the state``s intervention, however, has existed since the immediate postwar era. As a result, NHK has constantly been vulnerable to state influence and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Thus, it is imperative to question whether there have been new characteristics and rationales in the recent state intervention before concluding that NHK has shifted to the right. My study explores the rationale for broadcasting content regulation by the LDP government since neo-nationalist politicians, such as Abe, emerged as key figures within the party. It suggests that the LDP government has rationalized expanded broadcasting content regulation not by radically changing the existing legal system but by adopting a neo-conservative interpretation of the Broadcast Act, particularly the Rules of Editing Programs (Bangumi Hensh? Junsoku, Article 4), as a legal basis for state intervention.