Documentaries
In 1964, a new form of human-interest documentary series was launched under the title A Life. The first program, Dr. Ryokan, told the story of a practicing doctor working to improve the local environment. Focusing on ordinary people, the series turned a respectful gaze on people living everyday life to the full. The series gave birth to classic works like The Daydreaming Serpent, the story of a teacher who dedicated his life to children's education on a very remote island, and The Slag Heap, about a retired coal miner who had recorded his life in 300 paintings. Ringing in the Ears featured an A-bomb victim with radiation sickness who published an anthology of poems about the horror of the attack. Emigration followed a farming couple from Iwate Prefecture as they prepared to emigrate to Paraguay at almost 70 years of age. The director of that program, Aida Yutaka, continued to record their story for more than 30 years.
The style of the human-interest documentary was carried over to Reportage Japan, a series that began in 1978. The series used young reporters with a keen interest in contemporary social issues to investigate the causes and consequences of current events. The programs served as an on-the-spot witness in The Survival of Schools, when former Minister of Education Nagai Michio visited a high school that was reaching out to high school dropouts, when Nakagami Kenji looked at the Birth of a Rightist, and in filmmaker Oshima Nagisa's Caught in the Act, which dealt with the actual moment of shoplifting. Many programs depicted the changing times through their timely reporting of events and incidents. Yamaguchi-gumi, Summer '78 featured an interview with the head of a criminal syndicate during an outbreak of mob violence. Report: Airlifting Corpses investigated the increasing number of Japanese deaths overseas and the silent return of the bodies to Japan.
In 1985, the travelogue became a new documentary format, exemplified by 30,000 km Voyage around Japan, a continuous circumnavigation of the country's coastline. Blending scenery, history and people, the program chronicled the benefits and dangers in the long relationship between the sea and the people of Japan.

History programs
The series Exploring Japanese History began regular broadcasts in 1970. Focusing on particular historical individuals and events, it reconsidered Japanese history through lively discussions among distinguished historians and writers like Kaionji Chogoro, Matsumoto Seicho, Yamaoka Sohachi, and Shiba Ryotaro. These contributors made history come to life by discussing the feelings and motives of those involved in a given event, and the lesson it could offer the modern world.

Doorway to History

The format of history programs changed in 1978 with the launch of Doorway to History, which cast a rigorous contemporary analytical eye on significant events from the past. The second episode, 80,000 Samurai, dealt with the fate of the Tokugawa shogun's retainers, who gave armed service to the family from the founding shogun's early years as an obscure regional warlord. The program used various historical materials to show how the long peace had made these fighters redundant, and to answer such down-to-earth questions from viewers as "How much money did the vendetta of the 47 loyal retainers cost?" and "What kind of horses did Yoshitsune's cavalry ride?" It was the first history program to investigate the folk heroes Ishikawa Goemon (a legendary ninja bandit), Shimizu-no Jirocho (a Japanese Robin Hood), and Nezumi-kozo Jirokichi (a master thief said to be as nimble as a mouse). The show was hosted by the popular announcer Suzuki Kenji, whose smooth delivery could make even convoluted phrases sound graceful and lucid.