The main newspapers and distribution

The Yomiuri Shimbun (govt.-friendly)  10.1 million

Sankei Shimbun (govt.-friendly) 2.9 million

Nikkei Shimbun (govt.-friendly)  3.3 million

The Asahi Shimbun (anti-government) 8.3 million

Mainichi Shimbun (anti-government) 6.3 million

* USA TODAY: 2.3 million.

* The Wall Street Journal: 2.1 million

* The New York Times: 1.1 million

Oldest Japanese Newspaper

The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun was founded first, in 1872, which makes it the oldest Japanese newspaper.  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. The Mainichi is the only Japanese newspaper company to have won a Pulitzer Prize.

Perception of newspapers

A 1980 survey of eleven groups, which included business organizations, bureaucrats, Liberal Democratic Party members, farm organizations, mass media, intellectuals, labor unions, opposition parties, citizen movements, feminist groups, and the Buraku Liberation League, found that almost every group considered the mass media to be the most influential group in Japanese society. 

Readership

The mainstream papers proclaim a principle of neutrality in the rivalry between the Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition. But the reason for this adherence to principles results from money rather than ideals. 

Surveys of the political composition of the big three readership reveal that about: 

45 percent support the LDP

20 percent support the JSP (Japanese Socialist Party)

10 percent support the DSP (Democratic Socialist Party)

10 percent support the CGP (Clean Government Party)

10 percent support the JCP (Japanese Communist Party). 

The mainstream press remains aloof from any party in order to maintain this diverse readership, and thus revenue. Any newspaper that aligned itself with a party could soon lose as much as half of its readership.

The Reporter

The reporter goes through an orientation program lasting up to a month, reporters are assigned to various local bureaus throughout Japan where they will stay for two to three years, followed by a similar two to three year stint at another local bureau. During this time the reporter learns the fundamentals by being employed in all the possible local beats. After returning to Tokyo in the fifth or sixth year, political affairs reporters are assigned a specific government agency or political group for five to seven years. After this "beat" career the reporter is assigned to a specific desk and works his way up through the administration ranks. 

Mandatory retirement is at age fifty-five. As in the bureaucratic or corporate worlds, there is no lateral movement between newspapers and almost every reporter works for the same newspaper until retirement. And each newspaper emphasizes the values of loyalty, hierarchy, and conformity.

Surveys indicate that 80.1 percent of all reporters do not think that the "people's right to know" is fully guaranteed in Japan.

Press clubs

The most important means of government control. The only significant difference between contemporary press clubs and those before 1945 is the amount of information provided by the government.

Before 1945, the government was generally miserly with what it provided, but now it inundates reporters with a daily flood of information that is difficult to digest. Ironically, press clubs originated in the early Meiji era (1868-1912) as reporters gathered to exchange information in an attempt to overcome government secrecy, but soon every government ministry and agency had an attached press club.

But both before and since 1945, the government uses these clubs as information cartels whereby it supplies limited information in return for the members' promise not to write anything damaging. If any reporter violates the agreement, he is expelled from the club and his newspaper loses its standard source information-as well as a reputation as a reporter. Since each newspaper is given equal access to information, no one is allowed a scoop at the expense of its rivals, and thus an orderly news market prevails.

Investigative reporting of the kind that revealed the Watergate scandal is impossible in the stifling atmosphere of Japan's mainstream newspaper world. Embarrassing political corruption and scandal stories are generally published by the smaller weekly news magazines, forcing the larger media to follow it up to maintain their image of impartiality and public trust.

For example, many people are aware of the 1974 Tanaka scandal, the 1976 Lockheed scandal, the 1988 Recruit scandal, and virtually every other postwar political scandal, but no newspaper dared to reveal its information. The scandals were revealed only after outsiders-the monthly magazine Bungei Shunju in 1974 and 1988, and U.S. Congressional committee hearings and the foreign press in 1976-got access to the information. Only after the scandals came to light elsewhere did the mainstream Japanese press pick up the stories and begin running critical editorials.

The Bivings Report, 2006/New online-media

“After conducting research on the twenty one most widely circulated newspapers in Japan and comparing their websites to their American counterparts, it is clear that Japanese newspapers are not aggressively implementing Web 2.0 tools on their websites, although they are very advanced in delivering content to cell phones. However, we have concluded that the lag in the use of Web 2.0 by Japanese newspapers is mostly the result of vast differences between the American and Japanese newspaper industries. Where Americans are more Web- focused in their methods of obtaining news, Japanese rely more on traditional media such as print news and television. The Japanese papers do not lag behind so much as they have developed strategies meant to suit the needs of their own newspaper culture.”