Japanese newspapers

Japanese newspapers(Tân vănshinbun,or older spellingshimbun), similar to their worldwide counterparts, run the gamut from general news-oriented papers to special-interestnewspapersdevoted toeconomics,sports,literature,industry, andtrade.Newspapers are circulated either nationally, by region (such asKantōorKansai), by eachprefecture,or by eachcity.Some newspapers publish as often as two times a day (morning and evening editions) while others publish weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even yearly. The five leading national daily newspapers inJapanare theAsahi Shimbun,Mainichi Shimbun,theYomiuri Shimbun,Sankei Shimbunand theNikkei Shimbun.The first two are generally considered liberal/left-leaning while the latter three are considered conservative/right-leaning. The most popular national daily English-language newspaper in Japan isThe Japan Times.

The majority of the newspaper articles are printedvertically.Japanese law prohibits newspaper publishers to bepublicly traded.

Brief history

One of the firstkawarabanever printed, depicting thefall of Osaka Castle,17th century

Japanese newspapers began in the 17th century asyomiuri(Đọc mại,literally 'to read and sell') orkawaraban(Ngõa bản,literally 'tile-blockprinting', referring to the use ofclayprinting blocks), which were printed handbills sold in major cities to commemorate major social gatherings or events.

The first modern newspaper was theNagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser,which was published bi-weekly by the Englishman A. W. Hansard. The first edition appeared on 22 June 1861. In November of the same year, Hansard moved the paper to Yokohama and renamed it theJapan Herald.In 1862, the Tokugawa shogunate began publishing theKampan batabiya shinbun,a translated edition of a widely distributedDutchgovernment newspaper. These two papers were published for foreigners, and contained only foreign news. The first Japanese daily newspaper that covered foreign and domestic news was theYokohama Mainichi Shinbun( hoành bang mỗi nhật tân văn ), first published in 1871.

Newspapers at this time can be divided into two types,Ōshinbun(Đại tân văn,'large newspapers') andkoshinbun(Tiểu tân văn,'small newspapers'). People commonly referred toŌshinbunas "political forums" because these papers were inextricably tied to thePopular Rights Movement(Tự do dân 権 vận động,Jiyū minken undō) and its demands for establishing aDiet.After thegovernment's official announcement of the formation of the Diet, these newspapers, such as theYokohama Mainichi Shinbunand theChūgai shinbun,became organs of the political parties. The early readers of these newspapers mostly came from the ranks of the formersamuraiclass.

Koshinbun,on the other hand, were more plebeian, popular newspapers that containedlocal news,human-interest stories,and light fiction. Examples ofkoshinbunwere theTokyonichinichi shinbun(Đông kinh nhật nhật tân văn), the predecessor of the present dayMainichi shinbun,which began in 1872; theYomiuri shinbun,which began in 1874; and theAsahi shinbun,which began in 1879. In the 1880s, government pressure led to a gradual weeding out ofŌshinbun,and thekoshinbunstarted becoming more similar to the modern, "impartial" newspapers.

Throughout their history, Japanese newspapers have had a central role in issues offree speechandfreedom of the press.In the period of "TaishōDemocracy"in the 1910s to the 1920s, the government worked to suppress newspapers such as theAsahi shinbunfor their critical stance against government bureaucracy that favored protecting citizens' rights andconstitutional democracy.In the period of growingmilitarismto the outbreak of totalwarin the 1930s to the 1940s, newspapers faced intense governmentcensorshipand control. AfterJapan's defeat,strict censorship of the press continued as theAmerican occupiersused government control in order to inculcate democratic andanti-communistvalues. In 1951, theAmerican occupiersfinally returnedfreedom of the pressto Japan, which is the situation today based on the Article 21 of theConstitution of Japan.

Reproductions of Japanese newspapers

Listed below is an overview of reproductions of the three major Japanese daily newspapers, theYomiuri shinbun,theAsahi shinbun,and theMainichi shinbun.

These historical newspapers are available in three major forms, asCD-ROMs,asmicrofilm,and asshukusatsuban(Súc xoát bản,literally 'reduced-sized print editions').Shukusatsubanis a technology popularized byAsahi shinbunin the 1930s as a way to compress and archive newspapers by reducing the size of the print to fit multiple pages of a daily newspaper onto one page.Shukusatsubanare geared towards libraries and archives, and are usually organized and released by month.

These resources are available at many leading research universities throughout the world (usually universities with reputable Japanese studies programs). One will need to check each individual library's collection for information about the availability of these sources.WorldCatis a good starting point.

Yomiuri shinbun

In 1999, theYomiuri shinbunreleased a CD-ROM titledTheYomiuri shinbunin theMeiji Era,which provides a searchable index of news articles and images from the period. Subsequent CD-ROMs,TheTaisho Era,The Prewar Showa Era IandThe Prewar Showa Era II,were completed eight years after the project was first conceived.Postwar Recovery,the first part of a postwarShowa Eraseries that includes newspaper stories and images until 1960, is forthcoming. Issues ofYomiuri shinbunprinted since 1998 are also available as an online resource throughLexis-NexisAcademic.

Asahi shinbun

TheAsahi shinbunhas a CD-ROM database consisting of an index of headlines and sub-headlines from the years 1945–1999. A much more expensive full-text searchable database is available only at the Harvard-Yenching Library atHarvard University,which notably includes advertisements in its index. Researchers using other university libraries would probably have to first use the CD-ROM index, and then look into the microfilm orshukusatsubanversions. Microfilm versions are available from 1888;shukusatsubanversions are available from 1931. Issues of theAsahi shinbunprinted since August 1984 are available through Lexis-Nexis Academic.

Mainichi shinbun

Microfilm versions of theMainichi shinbunare available for the years 1984–2005, andshukusatsubanare available from 1950 to 1983. Issues of theMainichi shinbunprinted since 27 March 1998, are available throughFactiva.

Stance and circulation, only morning (2022)

1. Yomiuri:conservative,6,630,000
2. Asahi:center-left,3,970,000
3. Chunichi Shimbun/Tokyo Shinbun: left, 2,260,000
4. Mainichi:center-left,social liberal,1,850,000
5. Nikkei(Jp:Nihon Keizai): economy, conservative, 1,680,000
6. Nikkan Gendai: left (tabloid), 1,680,000 (Nominal)
7. Nikkan Sports:1,660,000 (Nominal)
8. Tokyo Sports:sports, 1,390,000 (Nominal)
9. Houchi Shinbun: sports, 1,350,000
10. Sankei Sports: 1,230,000
11. Yukan Fuji: right (tabloid), 1,050,000
12. Sankei:right, conservative, 990,000
13. Shimbun Akahata:Japanese Communist Partymedia, 900,000
14. Hokkaido Shinbun:left, 840,000
15. Daily Sports: 640,000
16. Shizuoka Shinbun: left, 532,000
17. Chugoku Shinbun:left, 510, 000

See also

• List of newspapers in Japan

Further reading

• De Lange, William (2023).A History of Japanese Journalism: State of Affairs and Affairs of State.Toyo Press.ISBN978-94-92722-393.

Bibliography

• "Japanese-language periodicals".Columbia University.Retrieved9 March2020.
• "Newspapers".Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan.Tokyo and New York: Kodansha. 1983.
• "Japan Newspapers and News Media Guide".ABYZ News Links.Retrieved9 March2020.
• "Japan Newspapers".onlinenewspapers.com.Retrieved9 March2020.
• "Japan news aggregator".NihongoUp.Retrieved9 March2020.