is the daily organ of the

Japanese Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a dem ...

in the form of a national

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

. It was founded in 1928 and currently has both daily and weekly editions.A Profile of the Japanese Communist Party
Japanese Communist Party (official website). Published July 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2017. ''Akahata'' has journalists based in the

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

of ten countries around the globe. They are

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, and Washington, D.C. Some of their journalism deals with activist politics, but they also do original reporting on a wide variety of political issues which are often untouched in Japan. Most Japanese newspapers publish the names of alleged criminals, but ''Akahata'' often declines to publish their names, unless they are related to

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

or right-wing activities. They also go out of their way to avoid using polite terms for the

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...

; for example, the paper refers to the

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, J ...

exclusively as "a Japanese soccer tournament". They refer to the

Buraku Liberation League is a burakumin's rights group in Japan. Buraku are ethnic Japanese and descended from outcast communities of the Japanese feudal era. History Pre-World War II period The origin of the Buraku Liberation League is the , founded in 1922. Howeve ...

as the "Liberation" League, using

scare quotes Scare quotes (also called shudder quotes,Pinker, Steven. ''The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century''. Penguin (2014) sneer quotes, and quibble marks) are quotation marks that writers place around a word o ...

to convey their opposition to the group. ''Japan Press Weekly'' is the newspaper's English edition.

Circulation over time

In 1959, ''Akahata'' had a daily circulation of around 40,000. By the end of 1960, as a result of recruitment drives conducted in conjuntion with the 1960 Anpo Protests, circulation soared to around 100,000. By 1970, the newspaper had over 400,000 subscribers to its daily edition, and more than 1 million subscribers to its Sunday edition. In the early 1990s, daily subscribers were over 3 million. However, by 2007, daily circulation had fallen to around 1.6 million, and fell further to around 1.0 million by 2019.

References

External links

''Shimbun Akahata''

''Japan Press Weekly''
{{Authority control Japanese Communist Party 1928 establishments in Japan Japanese-language newspapers Daily newspapers published in Japan Publications established in 1928 Communist newspapers Newspapers published in Tokyo

Circulation over time

See also

References

Further reading

External links