124 Daily Newspapers
According to the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association
there were 124 daily newspapers across the country in 2002.
Five general-interest national dailies—Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi
Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun—publish
different editions across the country, which carry the same
political, economic, and cultural reports but vary in their
local news coverage and advertising. Four regional newspapers,
namely, the Chunichi Shimbun, Hokkaido Shimbun, Nishi-Nippon
Shimbun, and Tokyo Shimbun are targeted at readers in more than
one prefecture, while other local papers cover one specific
prefecture. Four of the five national dailies and many of the
regional papers publish both morning and evening editions. Among
the 124 dailies, there are 11 sports newspapers, some with a
circulation of over one million copies.
Subscriptions account for most newspaper sales, with 93.8% of
Japan's papers delivered to subscribers in 2002. Home delivery
has advantages both for the subscriber, who gets a newspaper
delivered daily at a price slightly lower than the newsstand
price, and for the newspaper publisher, who can enjoy stable
circulation. In 2002, newspaper sales accounted for 53.5% of
total revenue and advertising for 32.6%.(*1)
Foreign newspapers printed in Japan are International Herald
Tribune, Asian Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and USA
TODAY. English-language newspapers published here by Japanese
news media include Japan Times, Daily Yomiuri, Asahi Evening
News, Mainichi Daily News and Nikkei Weekly. Mainichi Daily
News stopped printing at the end of March 2001 and began providing
news and other information only on the Internet, while Asahi
Evening made a fresh start with the inauguration of the hybrid
International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun. Japanese newspapers
printed abroad including Asia, Europe and the United States,
are Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, and Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
With the rapid increase of internet users in Japan, most Japanese
newspapers and wire services have gone online. According to
a survey by the NSK, 107 companies operated 143 news websites
and 53 provided news through mobile phones as of January 2003.
There are two major news agencies in Japan: Kyodo News and Jiji
Press. Kyodo News is a nonprofit cooperative news service established
in 1945 that provides news in Japanese, English, and Chinese.
It supplies news not only to its 59 member companies, which
publish 77 newspapers in total, but also to 10 other newspapers
and 187 broadcasting stations, including Internet news providers(*2)
Jiji Press was also founded in 1945 and currently has capitalization
of ¥495 million. It provides news in Japanese, English,
and Spanish to about 130 contracting newspaper companies, 20
broadcasters, and other subscribers.(*3)
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