Founder Akira Shimizu was a sargeant who worked as an announcer for the
Far East Network of the
Armed Forces Network of the United States and was given the job of exporting Japanese animation to the United States and using the profits earned to import American television series to Japan. Shimizu approached the Educational Film Producers Federation and succeeded in acquiring a short animated film. In 1959, it concluded an exclusive contract with NBC in the United States. In partnership with
National Telefilm Associates and the UK's
BBC, Pacific Television handled the sales of NBC's
Laramie,
Bonanza,
The Andy Williams Show, and NTA's
The Sheriff of Cochise, among others. The company also provided overseas broadcasting rights for Japanese films, appointed film director Kozaburo Yoshimura as head of the film department, and produced television films. In 1959,
Yasuo Hisamatsu was invited as director and entertainment manager, and around him, the company established an entertainment department with over 600 actors and 30 managers, and was positioned as a "TV entertainment-related agency". When starting the talent management business, they acquired several entertainment production companies with their talents. In February 1960, a large-scale labor dispute broke out, which led to the talent agency staff and actors who left the company to form the Talent and Manager Club (TMC). It later became the
Tokyo Actors' Consumer's Cooperative Association (Haikyo). Pacific Television's president, Akira Shimizu, was arrested in 1962 on charges of tax evasion (violation of the corporate tax law), and the company and president Shimizu were indicted in 1964, but he was found not guilty in 1974. Shimizu then filed a lawsuit for compensation from the state, but lost, and the company was forced to close down during that time. ==References==