Yomiuri Shimbun
Encyclopedia
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
published in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, Fukuoka
Fukuoka, Fukuoka
is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture and is situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu in Japan.Voted number 14 in a 2010 poll of the World's Most Livable Cities, Fukuoka is praised for its green spaces in a metropolitan setting. It is the most populous city in Kyushu, followed by...
, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five national newspapers in Japan; the other four are the Asahi Shimbun
Asahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
, the Mainichi Shimbun
Mainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by .-History:The history of the Mainichi Shimbun begins with 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...
, Nihon Keizai Shimbun
Nihon Keizai Shimbun
is one of the largest media corporations in Japan. Nikkei specializes in publishing financial, business and industry news. Its main news publications include:* Nihon Keizai Shimbun , a leading economic newspaper....
, and the Sankei Shimbun
Sankei Shimbun
is a daily newspaper in Japan published by the . It has the sixth highest circulation for a newspaper in Japan, and is considered as one of the five "national" newspapers...
. The headquarters is located in Otemachi
Otemachi
is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is located north of Tokyo Station and Marunouchi, east of the Imperial Palace, west of Nihonbashi and south of Kanda. It is the location of the former site of the village of Shibazaki, the most ancient part of Tokyo....
, Chiyoda
Chiyoda, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards in central Tokyo, Japan. In English, it is called Chiyoda ward. As of October 2007, the ward has an estimated population of 45,543 and a population density of 3,912 people per km², making it by far the least populated of the special wards...
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
.
Founded in 1874, the Yomiuri Shimbun is credited with having the largest newspaper circulation in the world
having a combined morning and evening circulation of 14,323,781 through January 2002. The paper is printed twice a day and in several different local editions.
Yomiuri Shimbun established the Yomiuri Prize
Yomiuri Prize
The is a prestigious literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1948 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "cultural nation". The winner is awarded one million Japanese yen and an inkstone.-Award categories:...
in 1948. Its winners include Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima
was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
and Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami
is a Japanese writer and translator. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered him critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize and Jerusalem Prize among others.He is considered an important figure in postmodern literature...
.
Political stance
The Yomiuri Shimbun is conservative and sometimes considered a centre-rightCentre-right
The centre-right or center-right is a political term commonly used to describe or denote individuals, political parties, or organizations whose views stretch from the centre to the right on the left-right spectrum, excluding far right stances. Centre-right can also describe a coalition of centrist...
newspaper.
For example, The New York Times reported that "The nation'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
The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
controversy. More recently the Yomiuri editorials have opposed the DPJ government.
Other publications and ventures
Yomiuri also publishes The Daily Yomiuri, Japan's largest English-languageEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
newspaper. It publishes the daily Hochi Shimbun, a sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
-specific daily newspaper, as well as weekly and monthly magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s and book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s.
Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings owns the Chuokoron-Shinsha
Chuokoron-Shinsha
is a Japanese publisher. It was established in 1886, under the name . In 1999, it was acquired by The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, subsequently changing its name to Chūōkōron-shinsha.-Profile:...
publishing company, which it acquired in 1999, and the Nippon Television
Nippon Television
is a television network based in the Shiodome area of Minato, Tokyo, Japan and is controlled by the Yomiuri Shimbun publishing company. Broadcasting terrestrially across Japan, the network is commonly known as , contracted to , and abbreviated as "NTV" or "AX".-Offices:*The Headquarters : 6-1,...
network.
It is a member of the Asia News Network
Asia News Network
The Asia News Network is a network of Asian daily newspapers that share editorial content with each other, including news stories, feature articles, editorials and personality profiles...
.
The Yomiuri Shimbun is known as the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
financial patron of the baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team Yomiuri Giants
Yomiuri Giants
The are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...
and the football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
club Tokyo Verdy 1969
Tokyo Verdy 1969
, is a Japanese professional football club, based in Tokyo, Japan, that plays in J. League Division 2.Founded as Yomiuri F.C. in 1969, Tokyo Verdy is one of the most decorated teams in the J. League, with honours including 7 league titles , 5 Emperor's Cups, 6 JSL Cup / J...
. They also sponsor the Japan Fantasy Novel Award
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 ¥5 million. The contest is open to anyone, whether an...
annually.
Yomiuri Shimbun has been a sponsor of the FIFA Club World Cup
FIFA Club World Cup
The FIFA Club World Cup is a football competition between the champion clubs from all six continental confederations.The first FIFA Club World Championship took place in Brazil in January 2000...
every time it has been held in Japan since 2006.
History
The Yomiuri was launched in 1876 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 KōyōOzaki Koyo
was a Japanese author. His real name was Ozaki Tokutarō .-Biography:Ozaki was the only son of Kokusai , a well-known netsuke carver in the Meiji period. He was educated at Tokyo Prefecture Middle School, and later Tokyo Imperial University...
.
In 1924, Shoriki Matsutaro took over management of the company. His innovations included sensational news coverage, a full-page radio program guide, and the establishment of Japan's first professional baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team (now known as the Yomiuri Giants
Yomiuri Giants
The are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...
).
The emphasis of the paper shifted to broad news coverage aimed at readers in the Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
area. By 1941 it had the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
area. In 1942, under wartime conditions, it merged with the Hochi Shimbun and became known as the Yomiuri-Hochi.
In February 2009, tie-up with The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
for edit, printing and distribution, then from March the major news of headline
Headline
The headline is the text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it.It is sometimes termed a news hed, a deliberate misspelling that dates from production flow during hot type days, to notify the composing room that a written note from an editor concerned a...
of WSJ Asian edition is summarized on evening edition in Japanese.
The Yomiuri has a history of promoting nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
within Japan. During the 1950s Matsutaro Shoriki, the head of the Yomiuri, agreed to use his newspaper to promote nuclear power in Japan for the CIA. In May 2011, when Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan
Naoto Kan
is a Japanese politician, and former Prime Minister of Japan. In June 2010, then-Finance Minister Kan was elected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and designated Prime Minister by the Diet to succeed Yukio Hatoyama. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation...
requested Chubu Electric Power Company
Chubu Electric Power Company
, abbreviated as Chuden in Japanese, is the electric provider for the middle Chūbu region of the Honshū island of Japan. It provides electricity at 60 Hz, though an area of Nagano Prefecture uses 50 Hz. Chubu Electric Power ranks third among Japan’s largest electric utilities in terms of power...
to shut down several of its Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant
Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant
The is a nuclear power plant located in Omaezaki city, 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 area of 1.6 km2 . A sixth unit began construction...
s due to safety concerns, the Yomiuri responded with criticism, calling the move "abrupt" and a difficult situation for Chubu Electric's shareholders. It wrote Kan "should seriously reflect on the way he made his request." It then followed up with an article wondering about 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.
Digital resources
In November 1999, The Yomiuri Shimbun released a CD-ROMCD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
titled "The Yomiuri Shimbun in the Meiji Era," 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 Taisho Era
Taisho period
The , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...
", "The prewar Showa Era I", and "The prewar Showa era II" were completed eight years after the project was first conceived. "Postwar Recovery", the first part of a postwar Showa Era 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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Locations
- Tokyo Head Office
- 1-7-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda, TokyoChiyoda, Tokyois one of the 23 special wards in central Tokyo, Japan. In English, it is called Chiyoda ward. As of October 2007, the ward has an estimated population of 45,543 and a population density of 3,912 people per km², making it by far the least populated of the special wards...
, Japan- Osaka Head Office
- 5-9, Nozakicho, Kita-ku, OsakaKita-ku, Osakais one of 24 wards of Osaka, Japan.-Economy:West Japan Railway Company has its headquarters in Kita-ku. Nihon Bussan has its headquarters in Kita-ku. Dentsu and Yomiuri Shimbun have branch offices in Kita-ku. Mazda has an office in the Umeda Sky Building Tower East. Air France has an office on the...
, Japan- West Japan Head Office
- 1-16-5, Akasaka, Chūō-ku, FukuokaChuo-ku, Fukuokais one of the seven wards of 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 for its fish market, and Ōhori Park.-Main facilities:...
, Japan
Yomiuri Group
- Yomiuri GiantsYomiuri GiantsThe are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...
- Nippon Television Network CorporationNippon Televisionis a television network based in the Shiodome area of Minato, Tokyo, Japan and is controlled by the Yomiuri Shimbun publishing company. Broadcasting terrestrially across Japan, the network is commonly known as , contracted to , and abbreviated as "NTV" or "AX".-Offices:*The Headquarters : 6-1,...
- Yomiuri Telecasting CorporationYomiuri Telecasting Corporationis a TV station joining Nippon News Network and Nippon Television Network System in Osaka Business Park, Osaka, Japan founded as "" on February 13, 1958...
- Chuokoron-Shinsha, Inc.Chuokoron-Shinshais a Japanese publisher. It was established in 1886, under the name . In 1999, it was acquired by The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, subsequently changing its name to Chūōkōron-shinsha.-Profile:...
- Yomiuri LandYomiuri LandYomiuri Land is one of the larger and well known Japanese amusement parks near Tokyo, first opened in 1964. It is situated on hillsides, and features modern "thrill" rides such as roller coasters and water rides...
, an amusement park - Yomiuri Advertising Agency (also known as "Yomiko")
External links
- Yomiuri Shimbun Online (Japanese)
- Daily Yomiuri Online (English)
- Guinness World Record: Highest Daily Newspaper Circulation
- Yomiuri Advertising Agency (Japanese)