Asahi Shimbun
Asahi Shimbun (朝日新聞, Asahi Shinbun) is a Japanese national newspaper, and it is the second most circulated newspaper in the world, after its Japanese rival, the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun. The newspaper forms, together with the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun, what is called "the big three" in Japanese newspapers.[1] Its circulation was as of June, 2005, 8.2 million copies of the morning edition and nearly 3.8 million copies of the evening edition[2].
History
The newspaper's first issue was published in Osaka on January 25, 1879, by politician Murayama Ryohei (Ueno Ri'ichi, who joined the management two years later, is often cited as a co-founder). The paper was a small-sized four-page publication, complete with pictures (although the first photograph was not printed until 1904) and furigana (Japanese signs used to indicate pronounciation). In the beginning, the newspaper usually sold a 1000 copies a day. In September the same year, the first editorial in the newspaper was published[3]. In 1882, "neutrality" and "altruism" were adopted as the newspapers' principal policies[4], which at the time was seen as a novelty, as most of the newspapers of that time were outspokenly siding with either the civil rights movement or the government. In 1883, the newspaper's circulation surmounted 30,000 copies a day, making it the largest newspaper in Japan. In 1888, an office was opened in Tokyo, and an Asahi Shimbun Tokyo edition was put into print[5][6].
During its time as Japan's most read newspaper, a title lost to Yomiuri in 1977[7], Asahi stood out as an early adopter of new technology. In 1889, Asahi was the first newspaper to send news stories by telegraph, between the Osaka and Tokyo offices, in 1890, the first to use rotary presses in Japan, and in 1895, the Asahi Tokyo edition was the first newspaper in Japan to make use of carrier pigeons. In 1923, the newspaper inaugurated the country's first regular airmail service to link the Osaka and Tokyo offices, which was sustained with its own fleet of aeroplanes. It was also the first to install a newspaper-clipping morgue and the first to run a picture supplement.[6][8]
World War II
"In World War II, the militarists "purged" Asahi, but the interlopers were ousted after Japan's surrender". [8]
References
- ↑ Britannica: 'Asahi Shimbun'.
- ↑ http://adv.asahi.com/english/media_kit/circulation.html
- ↑ Titled "On the role of newspaper editorials" (Shinbunshi ronzetsu no koto wo ronzu, 新聞紙論説の事を論ず)
- ↑ In Japanese hodochushinshugi (報道中心主義) and koheimushi (公平無私), literally "neutrality in reporting" and "fairness and altruism".
- ↑ http://www.asahi.com/shimbun/honsya/j/history.html
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://www.asahi.com/shimbun/honsya/e/e-history.html
- ↑ http://info.yomiuri.co.jp/company/history/
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794925,00.html