The is one of the major newspapers in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previously ''Mainichi Daily News''), and publishes a bilingual news magazine, ''Mainichi Weekly''. It also publishes paperbacks, books and other magazines, including a weekly news magazine, ''Sunday Mainichi''. It is one of the four national newspapers in Japan; the other three are the '' Asahi Shimbun'', the '' Yomiuri Shimbun'' and the ''

Nihon Keizai Shimbun ''The Nikkei'', also known as , is the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc. (based in Tokyo) and the world's largest financial newspaper, with a daily circulation exceeding 1.73 million copies. The Nikkei 225, a stock market index for the Tok ...

''. The Sankei Shimbun and The '' Chunichi Shimbun'' are not currently in the position of a national newspaper despite a large circulation for the both respectively.

History

The history of the ''Mainichi Shinbun'' began with the founding of two papers during the Meiji period. The '' Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun'' was founded first, in 1872. The ''Mainichi'' claims that it is the oldest existing Japanese daily newspaper with its 136-year history. The Osaka ''Mainichi Shimbun'' was founded four years later, in 1876. The two papers merged in 1911, but the two companies continued to print their newspapers independently until 1943, when both editions were placed under a ''Mainichi Shimbun''

masthead Masthead may refer to: * Nameplate (publishing), the banner name on the front page of a newspaper or periodical (UK "masthead") * Masthead (American publishing), details of the owners, publisher, departments, officers, contributors and address d ...

. In 1966, the Tokyo office was moved from Yurakucho to Takebashi, and in 1992, the Osaka office was moved from Dojima to Nishi-Umeda. The Mainichi has 3,200 employees working in 364 offices in Japan and 26 bureaus overseas. It is one of Japan's three largest newspapers in terms of circulation and number of employees, and has 79 associated companies, including Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS),

Mainichi Broadcasting System , or MBS, is a radio and television broadcasting company headquartered in Osaka, Japan, affiliated with Japan Radio Network (JRN), National Radio Network (NRN), Japan News Network (JNN) and TBS Network, serving in the Kansai region. It i ...

(MBS) and the ''Sports Nippon Newspaper''. (despite affiliation, the Mainichi does not own the largest stock in TBS nor in MBS) The Mainichi is the only Japanese newspaper company to have won a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

, for the 1960 photograph " Tokyo Stabbing". The Japan Newspapers Association, made up of 180 news organizations, has granted the Mainichi its Grand Prix award on 21 occasions, making the Mainichi the most frequent winner of the prize since its inception in 1957.

Partnership with MSN

On 15 January 2004, Mainichi Shimbun and MSN Japan announced they were to merge their websites. The partnership has been known as , effective since 1 April 2004. On 18 September 2007, Mainichi announced the launch of their new website, mainichi.jp, which would include "heavy use of social bookmarking, RSS and blog parts" and would "pay attention to bloggers". The new website began operations on 1 October 2007, marking the end of MSN-Mainichi Interactive, being replaced by mainichi.jp. The English-language ''Mainichi Daily News'' also moved to the new website. MSN-Japan switched to ''

Sankei Shinbun The (short for ) is a daily newspaper in Japan published by the It has the seventh-highest circulation for regional newspapers in Japan. Among Japanese newspapers, the circulation is second only to ''Yomiuri Shimbun'', Seikyo Shimbun, ''Asah ...

''.

''WaiWai'' controversy and cancellation

The ''Mainichi Daily News'' column WaiWai, by Australian journalist Ryann Connell, featured often-sensationalist stories, principally translated from and based on articles appearing in Japanese tabloids. The column carried a disclaimer since September 19, 2002: "WaiWai stories are transcriptions of articles that originally appeared in Japanese language publications. The ''Mainichi Daily News'' cannot be held responsible for the content of the original articles, nor does it guarantee their accuracy. Views expressed in the WaiWai column are not necessarily those held by the ''Mainichi Daily News'' or the Mainichi Newspapers Co.""Analysis of the investigative team"
''Mainichi Newspapers'', 2008-07-20. Nevertheless, ''WaiWai'' content was reported as fact in blogs and reputable foreign media sources.
Telegraph.co.uk, '' The Daily Telegraph'', 2008-7-22 In April and May 2008, an aggressive anti-''WaiWai'' campaign appeared on internet forums including

2channel , also known as 2ch, Channel 2, and sometimes retrospectively as 2ch.net, was an anonymous Japanese textboard founded in 1999 by Hiroyuki Nishimura. Described in 2007 as "Japan's most popular online community", the site had a level of influe ...

. Criticism included "contents are too vulgar" and "the stories could cause Japanese people to be misunderstood abroad.""WaiWai is dead"
''Japan Inc'', 2008-06-22. Critics had accused the WaiWai column of propagating a racist stereotype of Japanese women as sexual deviants with its sensationalist stories about incest, bestiality and debauchery. On June 20, a news site J-CAST reported on this issue. The Mainichi editorial board responded by deleting controversial WaiWai articles and limiting archive access, but the column remained in the ''Sunday Mainichi''.
''Mainichi Newspapers'', 2008-07-20. Citing continuing criticism, Mainichi's Digital Media Division shut down ''WaiWai'' on June 21. Mainichi also announced it would "severely punish the head of the Digital Media Division, which is responsible for overseeing the site, the manager responsible for the column and the editor involved with the stories." On June 25, Mainichi apologized to MDN readers. Some advertisers responded to the campaign by pulling ads from ''Mainichis Japanese site."The Birth of Blog Discourse"
(translation of blog post in ''CNET Japan''), ''Néojaponisme'', November 6, 2008. On June 28, 2008, Mainichi announced punitive measures.
''Mainichi Newspapers'', 2008-06-28. Connell, who remained anonymous in the announcement, was suspended for three months ("issuing three months' disciplinary leave").The writer was Ryann Connell. Justin Norrie

''The Age'', 2008-07-05. Other involved personnel were either docked 10%–20% salary or "stripped of their titles" for a period of one or two months. On July 20, 2008, Mainichi released the results of an in-house investigation. Mainichi announced that it would re-organize the MDN Editorial Department on August 1 with a new chief editor, and would re-launch the MDN on September 1 as a more news-oriented site."Mainichi Daily News to start over again"
''Mainichi Daily News'', 2008-07-20. Mainichi said, "We continued to post articles that contained incorrect information about Japan and indecent sexual content. These articles, many of which were not checked, should not have been dispatched to Japan or the world. We apologize deeply for causing many people trouble and for betraying the public's trust in the Mainichi Shinbun."

Offices

*, corporate headquarters :1-1-1, Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda, Tokyo * :3-4-5, Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka * : Midland Square, 4-7-1,

Meieki is a major railway station in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Japan. It is one of the world's largest train stations by floor area (410,000 m2), and houses the headquarters of the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). Much of this space is located in ...

, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya * :13-1, Konya-machi, Kokura Kita-ku,

Kitakyushu is a Cities of Japan, city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, Kitakyushu has an estimated population of 940,978, making it the second-largest city in both Fukuoka Prefecture and the island of Kyushu after the city of Fuku ...

:1314 W. McDermott Dr, Allen (Dallas) Texas USA (Central Region)

Sponsorship

Like other Japanese newspaper companies, Mainichi hosts many cultural events such as art exhibitions and sporting events. Among them, the most famous are the Senbatsu High School baseball tournament held every spring at

Koshien Stadium , commonly referred to as simply Koshien Stadium, is a baseball park located near Kobe, Hyōgo, Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The stadium was built to host the High school baseball in Japan, national high school baseball tourn ...

, and the non-professional baseball tournaments held every summer in the Tokyo Dome (formerly held in Korakuen Stadium) and the end of the fall in the Osaka Dome. The company sponsors a number of prominent annual road running competitions in Japan, including the

Lake Biwa Marathon The was a marathon race held in Otsu, Shiga, Japan. It was one of the prominent marathons in Japan. It was a male only competition and had IAAF Gold Label status.Nakamura, Ken (2010-03-07)Tsegay takes Lake Biwa crown IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-03-08 ...

and the

Beppu-Ōita Marathon The is an annual men's marathon race that takes place every February between the cities of Beppu and Ōita on the island of Kyushu in Japan. The race has IAAF Silver Label Road Race status and is a listed course of AIMS (Association of Interna ...

References

External links

*
The Mainichi in English
{{Authority control Daily newspapers published in Japan English-language newspapers published in Japan Mass media companies based in Tokyo Publications established in 1872 Centrist newspapers Centre-left newspapers Liberal media in Japan 1872 establishments in Japan Japanese-language newspapers