Day of Anpanman

The Day of Anpanman (日のアンパンマン, also known as the DoA) is a special event that occurs on the 19th of May every year. During this event, ABS Television affiliates, Nippon TV and NHK World devote their entire schedule to the ''Let's Go! Anpanman'' anime series, and related content.

History
Kenji Yukimura (founder of Kabushiki Gaisha ABS) first proposed the concept of a day dedicated to the Anpanman series in 2012.

Takashi Yanase (creator of the Anpanman franchise) and Shichirou Minami (founder of Shikoku Television Broadcasting) then expressed interest for the idea, and then created a poll asking the public for approval. Over 2,000,000 people then showed their interest, and 1,600,000 supported the concept. After 5 months of campaigning, Kabushiki Gaisha ABS officially announced that the inaugural Day of Anpanman would take place on the 19th of May 2013, coinciding with the year of ''Soreike! Anpanman'' 's 25th anniversary, and Nippon Television's 60th year of operation. Advertising posters were placed all over ABS Broadcasting Center, and the quarters of other ABS affiliates. The posters had an image of Anpanman (or one of his sidekicks) with the caption "SOREIKE" written across the bottom (as in Soreike! Anpanman), as a parody of the Obama "HOPE" campaign.

In January 2013, it was announced that Day of Anpanman programming would be shown on Nippon TV. The Euro-Japanese pay channel JSTV (operated by NHK Cosmomedia) announced that it would follow suit in Febuary.

NHK Cosmomedia announced that Day of Anpanman content would not be shown on JSTV in 2014, and would instead be shown on the free-to-air NHK World channel.

Preparation phase
The "preparation phase" sees ABS affiliates airing their most popular programmes 3 days before the DoA. This is done to free up space on their schedule for the DoA. This phase lasts from 5:30am on the 16th of May to 7:45am on the 19th of May.

On May 18, 2014, the entire ABS network was knocked off the air for over an hour after a transmitter failure during this phase.

Opening phase
This phase lasts from 7:45am to 8:02am on the Day.
 * At 7:45am, ABS shows its "Special Presentation" ident, and the ABS News team explains the premise of the Day of Anpanman from a temporary studio outside the Yokohama Anpanman Children's Museum and Mall. For the 2013 event, Takashi Yanase was invited into the studio for a short interview (the practise was dropped in 2014, as Yanase was killed after suffering cardiac arrest that year).
 * At 7:50am, ABS airs a short 2-minute news update from their temporary studio.
 * At 7:52am, the team enters the Mall area of the Yokohama Anpanman Museum. Here, they talk to fans of the show (referred to collectively as Anpanfans) before the start of the day.
 * At 7:57am, the team returns to their studio.
 * At 7:59am, a final countdown to the official starting point of the Day of Anpanman begins.
 * At 8:00am, the Day of Anpanman officially starts, the Anpanman characters gather on the central stage, and they dance to one of the show's ending songs. For 2013 and 2014, they danced to San San Taisou, but it was announced that Do-re-mi-fa...Anpanman! would be used as the Day's opening theme in 2015.

Programming phase
At 8:02am, the ''Let's Go! Anpanman Club!'' programming block starts as normal, albeit 15 minutes later than scheduled.

From the hours of 9:00am-11:15am, 11:30am-6:00pm and 6:20-2:15am, content aired on ABS stations is comprised of: ABS N11:15 and ABS N6 air within their regular timeslots.
 * Episodes of Let's Go! Anpanman
 * Screenings of the Anpanman feature films
 * Stage shows from the Yokohama Anpanman Children's Museum and Mall
 * Interviews between Anpanman characters and the ABS News team
 * The ABS News team's participation in Anpanman-themed activities at the Yokohama Anpanman Museum
 * Music videos from the Anpanman series, and
 * 2-minute regional news updates (which air once every 5 hours).

Ending phase
The Day of Anpanman ends at the following times:
 * 12:10am for viewers of Kyushu-Ryukyu Broadcasting (signs off)
 * 1:55am for viewers of ABS Television Hiroshima (hands over to ABS N24)
 * 2:15am for viewers of the following stations:
 * The Aso Broadcasting System and ABS Sat.1 (signs off)
 * The Sapporo Broadcasting System (hands over to ABS N24)
 * The Hyogo Broadcasting System (signs off)
 * Tohoku-ABS Broadcasting (signs off)
 * Shikoku Television Broadcasting (hands over to ABS N24)
 * Chubu-ABS Television (signs off)
 * Nippon TV (hands over to Nittele News 24)
 * BS Nittele (signs off), and
 * NHK World (resumes normal operations with NewsLine).