The comments seemed to run counter to the stated mission of the broadcaster, which is funded by fees collected from everyone who owns a television set, to report the news “without distortion or partisanship.”

While it is nominally independent, the broadcaster’s 12-member governing board is appointed by Parliament, which also approves its budget. The board, which includes four Abe appointees, chooses the president of the network.

The bluntness of the questioning in Parliament reflected the deep suspicion shared by many in the opposition that Mr. Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party is stocking the governing board with people ready to stifle criticism of his conservative government’s agenda, including playing down Japan’s wartime atrocities.

Mr. Momii said during his testimony, broadcast by one of NHK’s own TV channels, that he apologized for what he called misunderstandings. “It is my intention to protect freedom of speech and unbiased reporting,” he said.

Still, he retracted only one of his remarks, in which he compared Korean and other “comfort women” forced to work in military brothels during World War II to common prostitutes; his view has been rejected by many foreign historians but has been espoused by many Japanese nationalists including, in the past, Mr. Abe. Even this retraction seemed less than heartfelt: Mr. Momii did not say the comparison was mistaken, but merely apologized for expressing a “personal opinion” while speaking in his capacity as president.

The public interrogation, just a week after Mr. Momii took office, was a rare public humiliation for the head of a powerful institution whose influential evening news program can still set the tone for Japan’s group of smaller, privately run networks.

NHK is known for everything from children’s shows to high-quality documentaries to its popular samurai dramas. The network also has a storied history. When former Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender after World War II, he did so on NHK’s predecessor. And the network is so entwined with the culture that during the country’s headiest economic era, workers exercised en masse to its iconic morning calisthenics music.