Kyushu-University, Fukuoka, Japan

The Newspaper System in Japan

by

Christine Locher

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction to the topic

2. The newspaper system in Japan

2.1 Historical development
2.2 Characteristics of the Japanese press system
2.3 Types of newspapers in Japan
2.4 The 5 biggest newspapers in Japan
2.5 The Press Club system as a unique feature of the Japanese Press

3. Conclusion

4. Bibliography

1. Introduction:

Japan is the country with the highest newspaper density (number of newspapers sold per 1000 inhabitants) in the world and incredibly high circulation rates compared to other countries. This paper presents the newspaper system in Japan with a focus on the "Big 5" Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri, Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun and Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

In the first part I will present an outline of the historic development of the press until its present stage, then explain the specific characteristics of the newspapers in Japan that are different from other countries or very remarkable. The so-called "Big 5" newspapers will be presented in more detail. The last part of this paper draws a conclusion on the materials presented and gives an outlook on the future.

Throughout this paper, American English spelling is used. Japanese names are given in the Japanese name order, family name first, given name second.

2. The newspaper system in Japan

2.1 Historical development of newspapers in Japan

Japanese newspapers are about 250 years younger than their European counterparts and started in the second half of the 19th century. Until the opening of the country during the Meiji period (1868- 1912), there was no periodic news distribution whatsoever.

The first daily newspaper was the Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun (1871-1940). The first issues were 2 pages only. In the 1870s several newspapers were founded, among those were the Y^ubin H^ochi Shimbun and the and the Tokyo Nishinichi Shimbun, the predecessor of today′s Tokyo Mainichi Shimbun, both newspapers were founded in 1872. 1974 was the foundation of the Yomiuri Shimbun. In the first 2 years, the circulation rose to 25,000. Another newly founded newspaper was the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in 1876 and the Osaka Asahi Shimbun in 1879. These newspapers were very successful; they or their successors still exist today. The newspapers were financed through adverts and had a steady rise of circulation.

The newspapers were close to the leading political elite. Publishers and journalists were usually former samurai and belonged to the upper class. Their loyalty meant there was no room for opposition to the government. Most papers were also depending on government funding.

At the end of the 19th century, most important newspapers of today′s Japan were already founded and the power was with the big newspapers of Tokyo and Osaka that were distributed in the area and beyond. Freedom of opinion and press was guaranteed by the constitution of 1889, but there were lots of amendments that allowed censorship, especially later during times of war.

Due to the political circumstances in the 1930s, censorship became more severe, but the journalists and publishers were on the side of the government anyway, also for economic reasons. In the 30s, the Yomiuri Shimbun became increasingly important. During the war in the first half of the 1940s, the censorship became even harder and no newspaper could allow itself to criticize the government anymore. After the war, there were 54 newspapers left. Until 1948, the Allies censored the Japanese press. The big newspapers before the war were also the big ones after, but also new ones could establish. The original plan of the Allies was to replace all old politically problematic journalists by new ones, a plan that had to be abolished. So most press people kept their jobs. There were also communist journalists, but most of them didn′t stay very long.

In 1946 on July 23rd, the Nihon Shimbun Ky^okai (Japanese Newspaper Publishers` Association) was founded as a public-law corporation with the aid of the Allies. They published the "canons of Journalism", a code of ethical principles the press should follow. Among these are: freedom of the press, impartiality, tolerance, guidance, responsibility, pride, and decency, along with guidelines how to separate hard facts from opinions. (Nihon Shimbun Ky^okai, 1946, English translation from NSK: The Japanese Press, Tokyo 1990).

2.2 Characteristics of the Japanese press system:

In contrast to other countries, Japan is a relatively homogeneous society with a very high level of education, the literacy rate is close to 100%. Only 0.7% of the inhabitants of Japan are foreigners, most of them foreign businessmen. This means that there is a high level of shared cultural values. As opposed to other countries, Japan does not have a specific press law. Tokyo is the absolute center of information, therefore the Japanese press is very centralized compared to other countries.

Another outstanding fact of the Japanese press are the very high circulation rates compared to the rest of the world. In 1998, the NSK (Nihon Shimbun Nenkan) gave the total circulation with 71.55 Mio editions. 93% of Japanese read newspapers regularly. (Christopher, 1983). Advertising is second largest source of income for the newspaper companies, about 36.1 percent. Newspapers under a circulation rate of 100,000 are an exception.

The newspapers are issued seven days a week twice a day. This set paper distribution makes it very difficult to find reliable and comparable data about the circulation, because each company counts differently, sometimes the whole set is counted, sometimes the morning and evening edition count separately. There are no weekly and Sunday newspapers.

In Japan, as opposed to other countries, there is no tabloid or yellow press, only quality papers. However, there are daily sports newspapers with tabloid character, the only type of street sale newspapers. The shared principles of the quality newspapers are "fuhen (impartiality), fut^o (fairness) and k^osei (political neutrality) (Konishiki Akiyuki 1983). Prefectural newspapers and newspapers published in more than one region (like the "big 5" national newspapers) dominate, but there is also a strong tie to regional newspapers.

The subscription rate is about 98% for the big newspapers, a fact which is very important for the newspaper companies because they have a very stable base of readership they can count on. Almost only sports newspapers and special editions are distributed by street sale. 0.6 percent of the circulation is distributed by postal mailing, 1.4 % is street sales.

Comparable to the press in other countries, Japanese newspaper companies are also present in other media related fields, although there are laws to prevent concentration, according to which newspapers are not allowed a bigger share in broadcasting than 10 percent, but they often form subcompanies. A lot of newspapers also engage in sports, Tokuoka (1983,6) finds a "strange tie between newspapers and baseball". Yomiuri owns the Yomiuri giants, Asahi and Mainichi sponsor high school baseball tournaments, and the Ch^unichi Shimbun from Nagoya owns the Ch^unichi Dragons.

One of the characteristics of Japanese press that many people talk about is a certain harmony or even uniformity in coverage. Van Wolferen (1993) says: "Because the Japanese media believe it is their task to help defuse conflict rather than reflect it, much remains unreported." Jameson (1992) sees profit as the reason: "if (…) reports critically, circulation will drop and advertising money is lost." The big newspapers are not at all as investigative about political scandals as for example in the US. That is a possible explanation why party newspapers and newspapers of religious groups have far more readers than these groups have members, they are read as an alternative source of information. However that does not have a significant influence on political opinion or participation.

2.3 Types of newspapers in Japan:

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