The is a Japanese daily "

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...

" newspaper published in mostly

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

and neighboring regions by Based in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

, one of the three major Japanese metropolitan areas, it boasts the third highest circulation after the group newspapers the ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ''The Asahi Shimbun'', the ''Chunichi Shimbun'', the ''Ma ...

'' and ''

The Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

''. Even the Chunichi Shimbun alone exceeds the number of copies of the ''

Sankei Shimbun The , name short for , is a daily national newspaper in Japan published by the Sankei Shimbun Co., Ltd, ranking amongst the top five most circulated newspapers in Japan. Together with its English-language paper ''Japan Forward'', the ''Sankei ...

''. The newspaper is dominant in its region, with a market penetration approaching 60 percent of the population of

. The Chunichi Shimbun group also publishes the '' Tokyo Shimbun'', the ''Chunichi Sports'', and the ''Tokyo Chunichi Sports'' newspapers. While each newspaper maintains independent leadership and is considered a "separate" paper, the group's combined circulation in 2024 was 2,274,583, ranking third in Japan behind the ''

'' and the ''

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

''. The ''Chunichi Shimbun'' is Japan's second largest leftist newspaper. It is positioned as a representative newspaper of Nagoya. It is also the owner of the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...

baseball team.

History

The newspaper was formerly known as ''Nagoya Shimbun''. From 1936 to 1940 it owned the

Japanese Baseball League The was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball. The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine le ...

team Nagoya Kinko. The paper acquired the Chubu Nihon (now Chunichi Dragons) in 1946.

Foreign correspondence network

The group has thirteen foreign bureaus. They are in New York City, Washington, D.C., London, Paris,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Moscow,

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Beijing, Shanghai,

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

, and

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

Political position

The Chunichi Shimbun holds progressive views, and has political tendencies towards liberalism,

social democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

and

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

. It supported the Japan Socialist Party in the Showa period, the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...

and

Social Democratic Party (Japan) The is a political party in Japan that was established in 1996. Since its reformation and name change in 1996, it has advocated pacifism and defined itself as a social-democratic party. It was previously known as the . The party was re-found ...

in the

Heisei period The was the Japanese era name, period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his 2019 Japanese imperial transition, abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the ...

, and the

Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan The is a Liberalism, liberal List of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan. It is the primary centre-left politics, centre-left party in Japan, and as of 2024 is the second largest party in the National Diet behind the ruling L ...

in the Reiwa period. The two prewar newspapers (Shin-Aichi and Nagoya Shimbun) were conservative in the Chunichi Shimbun, but the founder, Kissen Kobayashi, ran for the mayor of Nagoya in 1951 at the recommendation of the Japan Socialist Party (first rejected, 1952). It was elected in the year) and changed to a left-leaning newspaper supported by the Japan Socialist Party. The Tokyo Shimbun was once a right wing, but when it was acquired by the Chunichi Shimbun in 1964, it changed to a left-leaning newspaper. Probably because of this, the mass media reforms led by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications under the LDP administration in the Showa era ( 1955 system) were treated coldly, and it was not possible to become a national newspaper and to have its own TV station in Kanto. No ( Tokyo 12 channel (currently

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.the Nikkei ''The Nikkei'', also known as , is the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc. (based in Tokyo) and the world's largest financial newspaper, with a daily circulation exceeding 1.73 million copies. The Nikkei 225, a stock market index for the Tokyo ...

, and currently independent stations in the Kanto region such as Tokyo Metropolitan Television and TV Kanagawa are affiliated with the Chunichi Shimbun). It was the only major newspaper against the Koizumi reforms, and the Asahi Shimbun and others agreed. Chunichi was the only one who opposed the TPP in a major newspaper. It holds a pro-labor union position. Since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident, it has taken a strong

anti-nuclear The Anti-nuclear war movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, n ...

policy. It also has a branch office in Fukushima Prefecture (not officially issued). As a media company, the Yomiuri Shimbun Group and the

Fujisankei Communications Group , abbreviated FCG, is Japan's largest media conglomerate. Its chair is Hisashi Hieda. The group engages in a wide range of businesses, from Mass media in Japan, media and entertainment, including Television in Japan, television, Japanese newspape ...

have a deep relationship with the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, while the Chunichi Group is a liberal newspaper and has a deep relationship with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. The Asahi Shimbun had a close relationship with the Kōchikai, a moderate faction of the Liberal Democratic Party. It opposes the revision of the constitution and the prime minister's visit to

Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...

. This newspaper is skeptical of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

Group companies

Mass media

Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting is a regional radio and television service serving Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It is majorly owned by the ''Chunichi Shimbun''. Its radio service is affiliated with the Japan Radio Network (JRN) and its television service affiliated ...

* Tokai Radio Broadcasting ** Tokai Television Broadcasting ** Ishikawa TV ** Toyama Television Broadcasting * Fukui Television Broadcasting * Mie Television * Biwako Broadcasting The following broadcasting stations are jointly funded by other major newspapers. * Television Aichi –

The Nikkei ''The Nikkei'', also known as , is the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc. (based in Tokyo) and the world's largest financial newspaper, with a daily circulation exceeding 1.73 million copies. The Nikkei 225, a stock market index for the Tokyo ...

invested * Hokuriku Asahi Broadcasting –

Asahi Shimbun Company is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

invested * TV Shizuoka –

invested * Shizuoka Asahi Television –

invested * Nagano Broadcasting Systems –

invested * Asahi Broadcasting Nagano –

invested * TV Hokkaido –

and Hokkaido Shimbun invested