Daily Newspaper Founding Day

What Is Daily Newspaper Founding Day?

Every February 21st is "Daily Newspaper Founding Day" in Japan. On the 21st day of the 2nd month of Meiji 5 by the old calendar (March 29, 1872, in the Western calendar), the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (東京日日新聞) — the predecessor of today's Mainichi Shimbun — was founded in Tokyo, making it Tokyo's first daily newspaper. While the Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun had launched the previous year as Japan's first daily, the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun was the first daily paper in the nation's capital, symbolizing the arrival of modern journalism at the center of Japanese political and cultural life.

The Birth of Modern Japanese Journalism

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 opened Japan to the world and created an insatiable appetite for news. Early Meiji newspapers transitioned from woodblock printing to movable-type letterpress, enabling faster production of daily issues. The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun was founded by the writer Jōno Denpei, Nishida Densuke, and the ukiyo-e artist Ochiai Yoshiiku. From around 1874, colorful woodblock prints (shinbun nishiki-e) illustrating its articles became popular Tokyo souvenirs, and the paper's issue numbering continues in today's Mainichi Shimbun, which reached issue No. 50,000 in 2015. Within decades, Tokyo supported dozens of competing daily papers, and newspapers had become the essential information infrastructure of modern Japan.

From Broadsheets to Digital News

Japan's newspaper industry grew to become one of the largest in the world. The Yomiuri Shimbun, with peak circulation exceeding 10 million copies per day, held the Guinness World Record for highest newspaper circulation for many years. Today, while print circulation has declined with the rise of digital media, major Japanese newspapers maintain large digital subscriber bases and continue to be important institutions of public information.

The Role of Newspapers in Japanese Society

Japanese newspapers have traditionally maintained high standards of accuracy, employing large teams of correspondents domestically and internationally. The morning paper remains a daily ritual for millions of Japanese readers, with national papers like the Yomiuri, Asahi, and Mainichi each commanding loyal readerships of millions. Local and regional papers play an equally important role in covering community affairs at the prefectural level.

Fun Facts About Japanese Newspapers

• Delivery network: Japan's newspaper home-delivery system, operated by a nationwide network of local distribution shops (販売店), delivers morning papers to homes across the country before breakfast — a remarkable logistical system.
• Evening papers: Many Japanese papers publish both a morning and an evening edition, though evening papers have declined significantly as smartphone news consumption has grown.
• Kisha clubs: Japan's press clubs (記者クラブ) system — where reporters from major outlets are embedded at government agencies and major institutions — is a distinctive feature of Japanese journalism.