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The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese
newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
published in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
,
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
,
Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...
, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major
newspapers in Japan Japanese newspapers ( , or older spelling ), similar to their worldwide counterparts, run the gamut from general news-oriented papers to special-interest newspapers devoted to economics, sports, literature, industry, and trade. Newspapers are ci ...
; the other four are the ''
Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...
'', the ''
Chunichi Shimbun The is a Japanese daily "broadsheet" newspaper published in mostly Aichi Prefecture and neighboring regions by Based in Nagoya, one of Japanese three major metropolitan areas, it boasts the third circulation after the group newspaper Total Yom ...
(
Tokyo Shimbun ''The Tokyo Shimbun'' (東京新聞, ''Tōkyō Shinbun'', literally ''Tokyo Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published by The Chunichi Shimbun Company. The group publishes newspapers under the brand name of The Tokyo Shimbun in the Tokyo Metr ...
)'' the ''
Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, 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'' (previ ...
'', 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 ...
''. It is headquartered in Otemachi,
Chiyoda, Tokyo is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English.Profile< ...
.' It is a newspaper that represents Tokyo and generally has a
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
orientation. It is one of Japan's leading newspapers, along with the Osaka-based
liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...
(
Third way The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from a ...
) Asahi Shimbun and the Nagoya-based
Social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
Chunichi Shimbun. It is published by regional bureaus, all of them subsidiaries of The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerate by revenue and the second largest media conglomerate by size behind
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings is the largest media conglomerate by revenue in Japan, while Sony is Japan's largest media conglomerate by worldwide media/entertainment revenue. which is privately held and controlled, directly and indirectly, by the Shōriki family - descendants and relatives of
Matsutarō Shōriki was a Japanese media mogul and politician. He owned the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' newspaper, the main mouthpiece for the military dictatorship during the war, after the war it gained Japan’s highest readership while openly distributing nationalistic ...
. The Holdings has been owned by the family since Matsutarō Shōriki's purchase of the newspaper in 1924 (currently owning a total of 45.26% stock); despite its control, the family is not involved in its executive operations. Founded in 1874, the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' is credited with having the largest newspaper circulation in the world as of 2019, having a morning circulation of 7.0 million as of June 2021. The paper is printed twice a day and in several different local editions. ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' established the
Yomiuri Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, a ...
in 1949. Its winners have included
Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Nationalism, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was ...
and
Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...
.


History

The ''Yomiuri'' was launched in 1874 by the Nisshusha newspaper company as a small daily newspaper. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s the paper came to be known as a literary arts publication with its regular inclusion of work by writers such as Ozaki Kōyō. In 1924, Shoriki Matsutaro took over management of the company. His innovations included improved news coverage, a full-page radio program guide, and the establishment of Japan's first professional baseball team, now known as the
Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...
. The emphasis of the paper shifted to broad news coverage aimed at readers in the Tokyo area. By 1941 it had the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the Tokyo area. In 1942, under wartime conditions, it merged with the ''Hochi Shimbun'' and became known as the ''Yomiuri-Hochi''. The ''Yomiuri'' was the center of a labor scandal in 1945 and 1946. In October 1945, a postwar "democratization group" called for the removal of Shoriki Matsutaro, who had supported Imperial Japan's policies during World War II. When Shoriki responded by firing five of the leading members of this group, the writers and editors launched the first "production control" strike on 27 October 1945. This method of striking became an important union tactic in the coal, railroad, and other industries during the postwar period. Shoriki Matsutaro was arrested in December 1945 as a
Class-A war criminal The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to Criminal procedure, try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes ag ...
and sent to
Sugamo Prison Sugamo Prison (''Sugamo Kōchi-sho'', Kyūjitai: , Shinjitai: ) was a prison in Tokyo, Japan. It was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan. History Sugamo Prison was originally built in 1 ...
. The ''Yomiuris employees continued to produce the paper without heeding executive orders until a police raid on June 21, 1946. The charges against Shoriki were dropped and he was released in 1948. According to research by Professor Tetsuo Arima of
Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...
on declassified documents stored at
NARA The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
, he agreed to work with the CIA as an informant. In February 2009, the ''Yomiuri'' entered into a tie-up with ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' for editing, printing and distribution. Since March 2009 the major news headlines of the ''Journals Asian edition have been summarized in Japanese in the evening edition of the ''Yomiuri''. The ''Yomiuri'' features an advice column, Jinsei Annai. The ''Yomiuri'' has a history of promoting
nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
in Japan. In May 2011, when
Naoto Kan is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for m ...
, then Prime Minister of Japan, asked the
Chubu Electric Power Company , abbreviated as Chuden in Japanese, is a Japanese electric utilities provider for the middle Chūbu region of the Honshu island of Japan. It provides electricity at 60 Hz, though an area of Nagano Prefecture uses 50 Hz. Chubu Electric ...
to shut down several of its
Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant The is a nuclear power plant in the city of Omaezaki in Shizuoka Prefecture, on Japan's east coast, 200 km south-west of Tokyo. It is managed by the Chubu Electric Power Company. There are five units contained at a single site with a net ...
s due to safety concerns, the ''Yomiuri'' called the request "abrupt" and a difficult situation for Chubu Electric's shareholders. It wrote that Kan "should seriously reflect on the way he made his request." It then followed up with an article wondering how dangerous Hamaoka really was and called Kan's request "a political judgment that went beyond technological worthiness." The next day damage to the pipes inside the condenser was discovered at one of the plants following a leak of seawater into the reactor. In 2012, the paper reported that
Nobutaka Tsutsui is a Japanese politician serving in the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Democratic Party of Japan. A native of Nakakubiki District, Niigata and graduate of Waseda University he was elected for the fi ...
, the Minister for Agriculture, had divulged secret information to a Chinese enterprise. Tsutsui sued the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' for
libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
and was awarded 3.3 million yen in damages in 2015, on the basis that the truth of the allegations could not be confirmed. In November 2014, the newspaper apologized after using the phrase "sex slave" to refer to
comfort women Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ia ...
, following its criticism of the ''Asahi Shimbun''s coverage of Japan's World War II comfort women system. The ''Yomiuri'' newspaper said in an editorial in 2011 "No written material supporting the claim that government and military authorities were involved in the forcible and systematic recruitment of
comfort women Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ia ...
has been discovered", and that it regarded the
Asian Women's Fund , also abbreviated to in Japanese, was a fund set up by the Japanese government in 1994 to distribute monetary compensation to comfort women in South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and Indonesia.Asian Women's Fund Online MuseuEs ...
, set up to compensate for wartime abuses, as a failure based on a misunderstanding of history. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported on similar statements previously, writing that "The nation's (Japan's) largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, applauded the revisions" regarding removing the word "forcibly" from referring to laborers brought to Japan in the prewar period and revising the
comfort women Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ia ...
controversy. ''Yomiuri'' editorials have also opposed the DPJ government and denounced denuclearization as "not a viable option".


Other publications and ventures

Yomiuri also publishes ''The Japan News'' (formerly called ''The Daily Yomiuri''), one of Japan's largest
English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
newspapers. It publishes the daily ''
Hochi Shimbun , previously known as , is a Japanese-language daily sports newspaper. In 2002, it had a circulation of a million copies a day. It is an affiliate newspaper of ''Yomiuri Shimbun''. Reports 19 September 1939: SS Scharnhorst The Hochi Shimbu ...
'', a
sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...
-specific daily newspaper, as well as weekly and monthly
magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
s and
book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
s. Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings owns the
Chuokoron-Shinsha is a Japanese publisher. It was established in 1886, under the name . In 1999, it was acquired by The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, and its name was subsequently changed to Chūōkōron-shinsha. Profile The company publishes a wide variety of mater ...
publishing company, which it acquired in 1999, and the
Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...
network. It is a member of the
Asia News Network Asia News Network (ANN) is a news coalition of 24 news organisations from various Asian countries. Headquartered in Singapore, it was established in 1999 to form an alliance and enhance co-operation between them and their respective journalists ...
. The paper is known as the
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
financial patron of the
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
team
Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...
. They also sponsor the
Japan Fantasy Novel Award The is an annual award which began in 1989 and is sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Shimizu Corporation with the backing of publisher Shinchōsha. The winner gets a contract to have their unpublished work published by Shinchōsha and receives ¥ ...
annually. It has been a sponsor of the
FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...
every time it has been held in Japan since
2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
.


Digital resources

In November 1999, the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' released a
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
titled "The Yomiuri Shimbun in the
Meiji Era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...
," which provided searchable archives of news articles and images from the period that have been digitalized from microfilm. This was the first time a newspaper made it possible to search digitalized images of newspaper pictures and articles as they appeared in print. Subsequent CD-ROMs, "The
Taishō Era The was a period in the history of Japan dating from 30 July 1912 to 25 December 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō. The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of ...
", "The pre-war Showa Era I", and "The pre-war Showa era II" were completed eight years after the project was first conceived. "Postwar Recovery", the first part of a postwar
Shōwa Era The was the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa ( Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until his death on January 7, 1989. It was preceded by the Taishō era. The pre-1945 and post-war Shōwa periods are almos ...
series that includes newspaper stories and images until 1960, is on the way. The system of indexing each newspaper article and image makes the archives easier to search, and the CD-ROMs have been well received by users as a result. This digital resource is available in most major academic libraries in the United States.


Locations

*Tokyo Head Office :1-7-1, Otemachi,
Chiyoda, Tokyo is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English.Profile< ...
, Japan *Osaka Head Office :5-9, Nozakicho,
Kita-ku, Osaka is one of 24 wards of Osaka in Japan. Incidents and accidents 2021 Osaka building fire Notable locations Kita-ku, particularly the Umeda area surrounding Osaka Station, is one of the main commercial centers of Osaka. Kita-ku is also a fina ...
, Japan *West Japan Head Office :1-16-5, Akasaka,
Chūō-ku, Fukuoka is one of the seven Wards of Japan, wards of Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka city in Japan. The ward is located in the center of the city. It includes Tenjin and Daimyō which are among the largest downtown areas in Kyūshū, Nagahama, which is known ...
, Japan


Yomiuri Group

conglomerate comprises many entities, including: *
Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...
*
Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...
*
Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation JOIX-DTV (channel 10), branded as , is the Kansai region flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned by the subsidiary of the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomera ...
* Chuokoron-Shinsha, Inc. *
Yomiuriland Yomiuriland (よみうりランド, ''Yomiurirando'') is an amusement park in Inagi, Tokyo, Japan that first opened in 1964. It is situated on hillsides, and features rides such as roller coasters and water flumes. It is home to Yomiuri Giants ...
, an amusement park *Yomiuri Advertising Agency (also known as "Yomiko", later sold to
Hakuhodo is a Japanese advertising and public relations company. It is headquartered at Akasaka Biz Tower in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. History Hakuhodo is one of the oldest advertising agencies in Japan and was founded by Hironao Seki at Nihonbashi-H ...
)


In popular culture

*
Jake Adelstein Joshua Lawrence “Jake” Adelstein (born March 28, 1969) is an Americans, American journalist, crime writer, and blogger who has spent most of his career in Japan. He is the author of ''Tokyo Vice, Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Poli ...
's 2009 memoir ''
Tokyo Vice ''Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan'' is a 2009 memoir by Jake Adelstein of his years living in Tokyo as the first non-Japanese reporter working for one of Japan's largest newspapers, ''Yomiuri Shinbun''. It was publi ...
'' is based on his time as the first American crime reporter at Yomiuri Shimbun, and was also the basis for a mini-series of the same name airing on
HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
in 2022.


See also

*
Media of Japan The mass media in Japan include numerous television and radio networks as well as newspapers and magazines in Japan. For the most part, television networks were established based on capital investments by existing radio networks. Variety shows ...
*
Liberal Democratic Party of Japan The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a conservativeThe Liberal Democratic Party is widely described as conservative: * * * * * political party in Japan. The LDP has been in power almost continuously since its foundation in 1955—a per ...
(
Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai ( ja, 清和政策研究会, lit. Seiwa Political Research Council), often shortened to Seiwakai is a major faction within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). It was led by Shinzo Abe from 2021 until his assassinati ...
)


Notes


References


Further reading

*


External links


''Yomiuri Shimbun'' Online (Japanese)

The Japan News (English)


Highest Daily Newspaper Circulation
Yomiuri Advertising Agency (Japanese)
{{Authority control Daily newspapers published in Japan Mass media companies based in Tokyo Publications established in 1874 English-language newspapers published in Japan Conservative media in Japan Centre-right newspapers Right-wing newspapers 1874 establishments in Japan Newspaper companies of Japan