Newspapers of Japan: Yomiuri, Asahi, Nikkei and more

The Japanese press rests on five major national dailies, Yomiuri, Asahi, Mainichi, Nikkei and Sankei, published in Japanese with English editions, alongside NHK, the Kyodo and Jiji agencies, powerful regional papers and portals such as Yahoo! News.

From kawaraban to the dailies of the Meiji era

In the Edo period, broadsheets called kawaraban reported fires and local incidents. The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun, forerunner of the Mainichi, appeared in 1872, followed by the Yomiuri in Tokyo and the Asahi in Osaka. The press later backed the imperial war effort.

Five national dailies with contrasting lines

The Yomiuri Shimbun and the Sankei Shimbun lean conservative, while the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun lean liberal, notably on the pacifist Constitution. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, or Nikkei, is the business daily. All publish morning and evening editions.

Japanese and the English-language editions

Articles are written in Japanese, combining kanji, hiragana and katakana. For readers without Japanese, The Japan Times, the Yomiuri group's The Japan News, the Asahi's English edition and Nikkei Asia provide the news in English, often with a delay.

Chunichi, Hokkaido, Nishinippon: the strength of bloc papers

Outside Tokyo, so-called bloc newspapers dominate their regions: the Chunichi Shimbun in Nagoya, which also publishes the Tokyo Shimbun, the Nishinippon Shimbun in Fukuoka and the Kahoku Shimpo in Sendai. Each prefecture also has its own local daily.

Yahoo! News, LINE and SmartNews

Many Japanese read the press through aggregators: Yahoo! News, LINE News and SmartNews republish articles from the dailies. NewsPicks combines business news with expert comments. The major titles are also building their own apps and subscription digital editions.

Kyodo and Jiji, Tokyo's two news agencies

Kyodo News, a media cooperative, supplies regional papers and offers an English-language wire. Jiji Press is valued for its economic and financial dispatches. The kisha club system, attached to ministries and parties, governs journalists' access to official sources.

NHK, public broadcaster and the go-to source in an earthquake

NHK, funded by a licence fee, is the reference for earthquake, tsunami and typhoon alerts. NHK World-Japan broadcasts in English and offers content in many languages, including French. The private channels Nippon TV, TBS and Fuji complete the range.

What do Japanese people abroad read?

Japanese expatriates mostly follow the national digital editions. In Brazil, home to the largest community of Japanese descent, settled notably in São Paulo, nikkei newspapers long thrived; see the Brazilian press. In France, a few cultural magazines cater to readers passionate about Japan.

Nikkei for the markets, Sports Nippon for baseball

The Nikkei, which gave its name to the Tokyo stock market index, dominates business news coverage. The sports dailies Sports Nippon, Nikkan Sports and Sports Hochi cover professional baseball, sumo and J.League football.

Editorial freedom and the self-censorship debate

The 1947 Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and the press is diverse. Criticism focuses mainly on the kisha clubs, accused of fostering closeness to official sources and of shutting independent and foreign journalists out of press conferences.

Paywalls, French-speaking readers and cross-checking

Asahi, Nikkei and Yomiuri keep part of their articles for digital subscribers. French speakers rely on the Asian press online and on European correspondents in Tokyo, then compare a conservative and a liberal title to balance their reading.

Japan and its neighbours

Relations with Beijing and Pyongyang dominate Japan's foreign news pages. To gauge differences in narrative, set Tokyo's coverage against the Chinese press on the Senkaku Islands and against North Korean state media on missile launches.

Following Japanese news from abroad

1. Choose an English-language source, The Japan Times or Nikkei Asia, to follow politics and business without speaking Japanese.
2. Install the NHK World-Japan app to receive earthquake, tsunami and typhoon alerts in English.
3. Add the Kyodo News English wire for political dispatches and announcements from the government in Tokyo.
4. Read a Yomiuri editorial and an Asahi editorial on the same subject to see the range of positions.
5. Use a machine translator on Yahoo! News Japan to reach regional articles missing from the English editions.
6. Check the publication date and time, allowing for the time difference with Europe, before sharing a story.

Access and subscriptions for Japanese newspapers

Essential facts on Japanese media

• Languages: mostly Japanese, English for The Japan Times, The Japan News and Nikkei Asia
• News agencies: Kyodo News and Jiji Press
• Public broadcaster: NHK, with NHK World-Japan for international audiences
• Highest-circulation daily: Yomiuri Shimbun; business: Nikkei; sport: Sports Nippon
• Time zone: Japan Standard Time, UTC+9, with no daylight saving
• Currency for subscriptions: Japanese yen (JPY)

Pitfalls to avoid with the Japanese press

• Confusing The Japan Times, an independent English-language daily, with The Japan News, the Yomiuri's English edition, whose editorial lines differ.
• Taking an article from a weekly scandal magazine for verified reporting by a major daily, when the standards differ.
• Relying on machine translation for a person's name, since kanji can be read in several ways.
• Sharing an old video of the 2011 tsunami during a new earthquake alert, as often happens on social media.
• Using paywall-bypass sites to read the Nikkei, at the risk of malware and truncated articles.

Your questions about Japanese newspapers