Daily Newspaper Founding Day

What Is Daily Newspaper Founding Day?

December 8th is "Daily Newspaper Founding Day" in Japan. It marks December 8, 1871 (by the old lunar calendar), when the Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun, Japan's first daily newspaper, was launched. On the modern calendar that falls on January 28th. It was published by Yokohama Kappansha, later the Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun Company.

A Single Sheet Called "the Father of the Modern Newspaper"

Until then, newspapers in Japan were mostly woodblock-printed booklets. The Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun used movable type and was printed on a single sheet of Western paper -- a new format at the time.

• Founded: December 8, 1871 by the old calendar; January 28th by the modern one
• Publisher: Yokohama Kappansha, later the Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun Company
• Format: tabloid-sized, set in movable type, one sheet of Western paper printed as two pages
• Contents: port-town news such as ship arrivals and departures and currency exchange rates

Not the Same Paper as Today's Mainichi Shimbun

Confusingly, the Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun is a separate lineage from today's national Mainichi Shimbun. It was renamed several times, spending the longest stretch as the Tokyo Mainichi Shimbun. It was badly damaged in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and was absorbed by the Teito Nichinichi Shimbun in 1940.

Tips for Marking This Day

• Buy a print newspaper and read it through from the front page to the last
• Notice the stock and exchange-rate pages, a direct descendant of the paper's original contents
• Take stock of where you actually get your information each day
• Look up when your local paper was founded

The Day "Every Day" Began

The now-ordinary idea of publishing every single day started in Japan in 1871, in Yokohama. December 8th looks back at the starting point of information arriving daily.