is a Japanese-English language newspaper based in

Little Tokyo, Los Angeles Little Tokyo ( ja, リトル・トーキョー) also known as Little Tokyo Historic District, is an ethnically Japanese American district in downtown Los Angeles and the heart of the largest Japanese-American population in North America. It is t ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and is the largest bilingual English-Japanese daily newspaper in the United States. As of February 2021, it is published online daily. In print publication is only on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The paper began in 1903 as a one-page, mimeographed Japanese-language newspaper produced by Rippo Iijima, Masaharu Yamaguchi, and Seijiro Shibuya. H. T. Komai became publisher in 1922, beginning a family dynasty. He was succeeded by son Akira and grandson Michael. The name of the newspaper essentially translates as "Los Angeles area newspaper" ("''ra''" abbreviated from "''rashogiri''" (羅省枝利), a historic Chinese name for Los Angeles, "''fu''" meaning " prefecture", and "''shinpo''", a term for newspaper). See als
"Honoring the 100th Anniversary of the ''Rafu Shimpo''
a speech of U.S. Representative

Lucille Roybal-Allard Lucille Elsa Roybal-Allard (born June 12, 1941) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she first entered Congress in 1993. Her district, numbered as the 33rd until 2003 ...

in the '' Congressional Record'', October 10, 2003, p. 24437. Weekly English sections first appeared on Feb 21, 1926. The English section became a daily feature on January 11, 1932. Togo Tanaka, the editor of the paper's English language section, appealed unsuccessfully to the United States government to allow the paper to continue printing in the event of war with Japan, and oversaw the paper's last edition before he was sent to the

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internment camp. The paper ceased publication in 1942 due to the Japanese American Internment. It was revived in 1946, due to Akira Komai's foresight and the loyalty of his employees. Komai had arranged for the paper's rent to be paid during the war and hid the Japanese type under the floorboards. As of 1992, circulation was 23,000. By 1997, “the laborious process of hand setting the several thousand syllabic characters and ideograms used in Japanese, which took up to three hours per page, adgiven way to a rapid computerized operation.” In March 2010, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' reported that ''The Rafu Shimpo'' was losing circulation and money, and was the target of community drives hoping to save the newspaper from going out of business. On March 25, 2016, publisher Michael Komai released an "

open letter An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...

" stating that the paper had lost $750,000 over the prior three years, was projected to lose $350,000 in 2016, and would have to close at the end of that year unless its finances improved. In the hopes of generating 10,000 new subscribers and raising $500,000, Komai introduced an eNewspaper subscription drive in the same "

".Michael Komai
"The State of The Rafu Shimpo: An Open Letter from the Publisher"
''Rafu Shimpo'', March 25, 2016. Rafu Shimpo is still operating online as of February 2022.

References

External links

''Rafu Shimpo'' Official Site

''Rafu Shimp''o Official Site

''Rafu Shimpo''
from ''Densho Encyclopedia'', Eiichiro Azuma {{DEFAULTSORT:Rafu Shimpo, The Ethnic mass media in the United States Japanese-American mass media Japanese-American press Japanese-American culture in Los Angeles Japanese-language newspapers published in the United States Daily newspapers published in Greater Los Angeles Publications established in 1903 Non-English-language newspapers published in California 1903 establishments in California Bilingual newspapers Little Tokyo, Los Angeles

See also

References

External links