| Asahi Shimbun |
Article Index for Asahi |
Shopping Asahi |
Information AboutAsahi Shimbun |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ASAHI SHIMBUN | |
| asahi corporation | |
| newspapers published in japan | |
| companies based in tokyo | |
| tadao ando buildings | |
|
The ''Asahi shimbun'' (朝日新聞; ''Asahi shinbun'') is one of the big three leading national Newspapers In Japan ; the other two are the '' Yomiuri Shimbun '' and the '' Mainichi Shimbun ''. Its circulation, which was 8.27 million for its morning edition; 3.85 million for its evening edition as of April 2004, was second behind that of ''Yomiuri shimbun''. The newspaper has alliances with the '' International Herald Tribune '', which is affiliated with the '' New York Times ''. Together, they publish ''International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun'' as their English edition, which has replaced ''Asahi's'' previous ''Asahi Evening News''. HISTORY One of Japan's oldest and largest national daily newspapers, the ''Asahi shimbun'' began publication in Osaka on January 25, 1879 as a small-print, four-page illustrated paper that sold for one sen (a hundredth of a yen) a copy, and had a circulation of approximately 3,000 copies. The three founding officers of a staff of twenty were Kimura Noboru (owner), Murayama Ryōhei (company president and publisher), and Tsuda Tei (managing editor). The company's first premises were at Minami-dori, Edobori in Osaka. On September 13 of the same year, ''Asahi'' printed its first editorial. In 1881, the ''Asahi'' adopted an all-news format, and enlisted Ueno Riichi as co-owner. From 1882, ''Asahi'' began to receive financial support from the Government and Mitsui , and hardened the management base. Then, under the leadership of Ueno whose brother was one of the Mitsui managers and Murayama, the ''Asahi'' began its steady ascent to national prominence. On July 10, 1888, the first issue of the '' Tokyo asahi shimbun'' was published from the Tokyo office at Moto-sukiya-cho, Kyobashi. The first issue was numbered No. 1,076 as it was a continuation of three small papers --- ''Jiyu no tomoshibi'', ''Tomoshibi shimbun'' and ''Mesamashi shibbun''. On April 1, 1907, the renowned writer Natsume Soseki , then 41, resigned his teaching positions at Tokyo Imperial University, now Tokyo University to join the ''Tokyo asahi shimbun''. This was soon after the publication of his novels ''Wagahai wa neko de aru'' and ''Botchan'', which made him the center of literary attention. On October 1, 1908, ''Osaka asahi shimbun'' and ''Tokyo asahi shimbun'' were merged into a single unified corporation, Asahi shibbun goshi kaisha, with a capitalization of approximately 600,000 yen. In 1918, because of its critical stance towards Terauchi Masatake 's cabinet during the Rice Riots , government authorities suppressed an article in the ''Osaka asahi'', leading to a softening of its liberal views, and the resignation of many of its staff reporters in protest. Indeed, the newspaper's liberal position led to its vandalization during the February 26th Incident of 1936, commonly known as the 2-26 Incident , as well as repeated attacks from the right wing throughout this period (and for that matter, throughout its history). From the latter half of 1930's, ''Asahi'' ardently supported Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro 's wartime government (called ''Konoe Shin Taisei'' or Konoe's New Political Order) and criticized capitalism harshly under Ogata Taketora , the Editor in Chief of ''Asahi Shinbun''. Influential editorial writers of ''Asahi'' such as Ryu Shintaro , Sassa Hiro'o and Ozaki Hotsumi , etc. were the center members of the Showa Studies Society which was a political Think Tank for Konoe. Ogata was one of the leading members of the '' Genyosha '' which had been formed in 1881 by Toyama Mitsuru . The ''Genyosha'' was an ultranationalist group comprised of organized crime figures and those with far right-wing political beliefs. Hirota Koki , hanged as a Class A war criminal, was also a leading member of the ''Genyosha'' and one of Ogata's best friends. Hirota was the chairman of Toyama's funeral committee, and Ogata was the vice-chairman. Ryu, who had been a Marxian economist of the Ohara Institute for Social Research before he entered ''Asahi'', advocated centrally Planned Economies in his ''Nihon Keizai no Saihensei'' (Reorganization of Japanese Economies. 1939). And Sassa, a son of ultranationalistic politician Sassa Tomofusa , joined hands with far-right generals(they were called '' Kodoha '' or Imperial Way Faction ) and terrorists who had assassinated Inoue Junnosuke (ex-Minister of Finance), Baron Dan Takuma (chairman of the board of directors Mitsui combine) and Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi to support Konoe. In 1944 , they attempted assassination of Prime Minister Tojo Hideki (a member of '' Toseiha '' or Control Group which conflicted with ''Kodoha'' in Japanese Army ). On April 9, 1937 the '' Kamikaze '', a Mitsubishi aircraft sponsored by the Asahi Shinbun company and flown by Masaaki Iinuma, arrived in London , to the astonishment of the Western World . It was the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe. On September 1, 1940, the ''Osaka Asahi Shinbun'' and the ''Tokyo Asahi Shinbun'' unified their names into the ''Asahi Shinbun''. On January 1, 1943, the publication of the Asahi shinbun was stopped by the government after the newspaper published a critical essay contributed by Nakano Seigo who was also one of the leading members of the ''Genyosha'' and Ogata's best friend. On July 22, 1944, Ogata, Vice President of ''Asahi'', became the Minister Without Portfolio and the President of Cabinet Intelligence Agency in Koiso Kuniaki 's cabinet. On April 7, 1945, Shimomura Hiroshi , former Vice President of ''Asahi'', became the Minister without Portfolio and the President of Cabinet Intelligence Agency in Suzuki Kantaro 's cabinet. On August 17, 1945, Ogata became the Minister without Portfolio and the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the President of Cabinet Intelligence Agency in Prince Higashikuni 's cabinet. On November 5, 1945, as a way of assuming responsibility for compromising the newspaper's principles during the war, the ''Asahi shinbun's'' president and senior executives resigned en masse. On November 21, 1946, the newspaper adopted the modern Kana usage system (shin kanazukai). On November 30, 1949, the ''Asahi shimbun ''started to publish the serialized cartoon strip Sazae-san by Machiko Hasegawa. This was a landmark cartoon in Japan's postwar era. On April 2, 2001, the English-language daily, the ''International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shinbun'', was first published. HISTORICAL REPRODUCTIONS OF PAST ISSUES Historical reproductions of past issues of the ''Asahi shinbun'' are available in three major forms, as CD-ROM s, as Microfilm , and as ''shukusatsuban'' (縮刷版, literally, "reduced-sized print editions"), which is a technology popularized by ''Asahi shinbun'' in the 1930s as a way to compress and archive newspapers by reducing the size of the print to fit multiple pages of a daily newspaper onto one page. "Shukusatsuban" are catered towards libraries and archives, and are usually organized and released by month. These resources are available at many leading research universities throughout the world (usually universities with reputable Japanese Studies programs). The ''Asahi shinbun'' has a CD-ROM database consisting of an index of headlines and sub-headlines from the years 1945-1999. A much more expensive full-text searchable database is available only at the Harvard-Yenching Library at Harvard University , which notably includes advertisements in its index. Researchers using other university libraries would probably have to first use the CD-ROM index, and then look into the microfilm or ''shukusatsuban'' versions. Microfilm versions are available from 1888; ''shukusatsuban'' versions are available from 1931. Issues of the ''Asahi shinbun'' printed since August,1984 are available through ''Lexis-Nexis Academic''. Note: One will need to check each individual library's collection for information about the availability of these sources. '''' {Link without Title} are good starting points (password required). OFFICES
: Riverwalk Kitakyushu , Muromachi 1-1-1, Kokura Kita-ku, Kitakyushu
:Hakata Eki Mae 2-1-1, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka
:Sakae 1-3-3, Naka-ku, Nagoya
:Chuo-ku, Sapporo EXTERNAL LINKS
SEE ALSO REFERENCES ''Asahi Shimbun Shashi'' (Tokyo and Osaka: Asahi Shimbun Sha, 1990-1995. Official history of ''Asahi'') "Asahi shimbun" in ''Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan'' (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha, 1983). |
|
|