ABSTRACT
At the end of 1940 there existed in Japan, according to the Japan-Manchukuo Year Book for 1941, over 1800 daily newspapers, of which, however, only about 700 could be regarded as newspapers in the accepted sense, the rest being local papers with very limited circulation. The daily volume of circulation was estimated at a total of approximately 7,000,000 copies,
i.e. one copy of a newspaper per every fourteen people. In practice, however, almost the whole of this total circulation is monopolised by some six or eight big newspapers in Tokyo and Osaka whose circulations run into several hundreds of thousands each. They are the Asahi (Morning Sun), which has editions in both Tokyo and Osaka, claiming a circulation of 800,000 in Tokyo and 1,200,000 in Osaka; the Osaka Mainichi (Osaka Daily), with 1,000,000 copies in Osaka; the Nichi-Nichi (Day by Day), with a circulation of 800,000 in Tokyo; the Hochi (Reporter), the Kokumin (People), the Yomiuri (Call), the Miyako (Metropolis) and the Chugai Shogyo (Journal of Domestic and Foreign Commerce). These papers between them absorb very nearly 6,000,000 copies. These large Tokyo and Osaka newspapers have, in the course of time, divided the country into roughly two circulation areas, the Osaka papers supplying the southern half of Japan and the Tokyo papers the northern half. At the end of 1940 there existed in Japan nine major newspaper concerns which controlled practically the entire daily press, with the Asahi, Mainichi Yomiuri and Domei (News Agency) concerns owning the entire provincial press. Most newspapers are morning papers, but all leading Tokyo and Osaka papers used to issue evening editions, and some Tokyo papers had midday editions besides these. In addition a large number of “extras” used to come out between regular editions at all hours of the day. Since the great newspaper amalgamation of 1942, however, much of this has changed.
