Mass media

Newspapers in Japan

Good evening, everyone. Today, I would like to tell you about my exciting experience in the university. It was a project "Mass media in the Oriental countries".As you know, I'm studying the Japanese language, so I had some information about this subject, but it was  really interesting to find out something new!!! So, set comfy and have a pleasant reading!

 

Today I would like to give you a general overview of newspapers in Japan. I’ve divided my presentation into 3 parts. First is going to be the first ways of getting news, second will be the first Japanese newspapers and finally, the last point is the up-to-date newspapers in Japan.

I would like to begin with the first recourses of information in Japan. Nowadays it’s difficult to believe that until the 19^th century there was no print media in Japan.  For many centuries the important news was told by  heralds, when they went to a crowded place and shouted out to the crowd some information which was written on large wooden boards. These boards were very heavy, that’s why the heralds use the trolley to bring them all the time.

Now, what about the first newspapers? The first newspapers appeared in the 17th century. Such sheets called "kavaraban" were published in Osaka a xylographic way, using baked clay tablets as a template. These prints "kavaraban» were a very distant ancestor of the newspapers. This practice continued over two hundred years, until the Europeans and Americans went to the islands and the Japanese were allowed to live in Yokohama. So these “gaijins” began to print their own newspapers, which mostly contained material from various popular publications and local news.

Now, turning to the weekly newspapers. In 1861 The Englishman Hensard in Nagasaki, published «Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertizer» twice a week. In 1864 a German named  Joseph Heno, began to print the newspaper "Kagan Shimbun. Shogun Takugava liked this idea, that’s why he ordered to publish  own newspaper, "Campan Batabia Shimbun." "Campan Batabia Shimbun" was filled with the information from another European newspaper.

Let me move on to the first magazines. The turning point for the Japanese press was 1868, when "Meiji Revolution" took place in Japan. Then it was decided to modernize the life of the empire, and one of the main examples of a new life was the appearance of  Japanese newspapers. They appeared everywhere - in Edo, as Tokyo was still called, in Kyoto, Osaka and Nagasaki. In 1868, the first truly Japanese newspaper "Tyugay Shimbun” was published." In 1867 Mr Yanagawa Syunsan was trying to produce "Seyu dzassi" - "West Magazine," which is based on "dzassi", which is translated from Japanese  as "a variety of writings. "Unfortunately, this newspaper had some provocation materials and after awhile it stopped to exist because of the pressure of government bodies.   

In 1871, 35 newspapers were published in Japan and that year the first daily "Ekohama Mainichi Shimbun." was published. Only a year later, in 1872, came the first issues of "Tokoyo yarn filaments Shimbun", "Hoti Yubin Shimbun", "Kotyu Shimbun", from which the Japanese giants of modern information media grew. There were 2 types of newspapers, first called "big newspaper" - "osimbun", for polical news and "kosimbun" - "small newspaper", like tabloids which published local news, interesting stories, chronicle of incidents, as well as light fiction. At the same time there were many highly specialized and professional publications. Newspapers became part of Japanese life.

My next point is advertisement. The Japanese newspapers were different from "non-Japanese": their size was smaller; they looked "bright" against the background of white newsprint, amazing quality for the Europeans. Unusual "gaydzinskogo sight" was a Japanese newspaper for ads. For example, the announcement of the transport firms in the advertising section of a Japanese newspaper, published in Tokyo was: "Visit our warehouse! You'll be greeted so warmly, with a sincere pleasure, as if you are a ray of sun shone in the sky, after several days of rain and storms. "

 

 Next we come to up-to-dates. Nowadays the most popular newspaper in Japan is “Yomiuri Shimbun’. It sells ten million copies a day. This Japanese newspaper is published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five national newspapers in Japan; the other four are the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and the Sankei Shimbun. The headquarters is located in Otemachi, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The paper is printed twice a day and in several different local editions. The Yomiuri Shimbun is a conservative newspaper.

Yomiuri also publishes The Daily Yomiuri, Japan's largest English-language newspaper. It publishes the daily Hochi Shimbun, a sport-specific daily newspaper, as well as weekly and monthly magazines and books. Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings owns the Chuokoron-Shinsha publishing company, which it acquired in 1999, and the Nippon Television network. It is a member of the Asia News Network. Yomiuri Shimbun has been a sponsor of the FIFA Club World Cup every time it has been held in Japan since 2006. Yomiuri Shimbun established the Yomiuri Prize in 1948. Its winners include Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami, the famous Japanese writers.

So, that brings me to the end of my presentation. 

Let me summarize what we’ve looked at. The appearance of the newspapers in Japan was not as easy as in other European countries. But it was rather interesting. Nowadays the Japanese have a very powerful and rich newspaper industry. And I believe that this nation values this rich source of information.

In conclusion, I’d like to leave you with the following idea that the newspapers are a really important source of information in our life. Use them to be to know a good thing when one sees it. 

Well, thank you for your reading. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them!