The is one of the major

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, sport ...

s in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...

news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previously ''Mainichi Daily News''), and publishes a bilingual news magazine, ''Mainichi Weekly''. It also publishes paperbacks, books and other magazines, including a weekly news magazine, ''Sunday Mainichi''. It is one of the four national newspapers in Japan; the other three are the ''

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition an ...

'', the '' Yomiuri Shimbun'' and the '' Nihon Keizai Shimbun''. The Sankei Shimbun and The '' Chunichi Shimbun'' are not currently in the position of a national newspaper despite a large circulation for the both respectively.

History

The history of the ''Mainichi Shinbun'' began with the founding of two papers during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

. The '' Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun'' was founded first, in 1872. The ''Mainichi'' claims that it is the oldest existing Japanese daily newspaper with its 136-year history. The

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

''Mainichi Shimbun'' was founded four years later, in 1876. The two papers merged in 1911, but the two companies continued to print their newspapers independently until 1943, when both editions were placed under a ''Mainichi Shimbun''

masthead Masthead may refer to: * Nameplate (publishing), the banner name on the front page of a newspaper or periodical (UK "masthead") * Masthead (American publishing), details of the owners, publisher, departments, officers, contributors and address d ...

. In 1966, the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

office was moved from Yurakucho to Takebashi, and in 1992, the

office was moved from Dojima to Nishi-Umeda. The Mainichi has 3,200 employees working in 364 offices in Japan and 26 bureaus overseas. It is one of Japan's three largest newspapers in terms of circulation and number of employees, and has 79 associated companies, including Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) and the ''Sports Nippon Newspaper''. (despite affiliation, the Mainichi does not own the largest stock in TBS nor in MBS) The Mainichi is the only Japanese newspaper company to have won a Pulitzer Prize, for the 1960 photograph " Tokyo Stabbing". The Japan Newspapers Association, made up of 180 news organizations, has granted the Mainichi its Grand Prix award on 21 occasions, making the Mainichi the most frequent winner of the prize since its inception in 1957.

Partnership with MSN

On 15 January 2004, Mainichi Shimbun and MSN Japan announced they were to merge their websites. The partnership has been known as , effective since 1 April 2004. On 18 September 2007, Mainichi announced the launch of their new website, mainichi.jp, which would include "heavy use of social bookmarking, RSS and blog parts" and would "pay attention to bloggers". The new website began operations on 1 October 2007, marking the end of MSN-Mainichi Interactive, being replaced by mainichi.jp. The English-language ''Mainichi Daily News'' also moved to the new website. MSN-Japan switched to '' Sankei Shinbun''.

''WaiWai'' controversy and cancellation

The ''Mainichi Daily News'' column WaiWai, by Australian journalist

Ryann Connell Ryann is a female given name. Notable people with the name include: * Ryann Donnelly (born 1986), American musical artist * Ryann Holmes (born 1984), American consultant * Ryann Krais (born 1990), American athlete * Ryann O'Toole (born 1987), Ameri ...

, featured often-sensationalist stories, principally translated from and based on articles appearing in Japanese tabloids. The column carried a disclaimer since September 19, 2002: "WaiWai stories are transcriptions of articles that originally appeared in Japanese language publications. The ''Mainichi Daily News'' cannot be held responsible for the content of the original articles, nor does it guarantee their accuracy. Views expressed in the WaiWai column are not necessarily those held by the ''Mainichi Daily News'' or the Mainichi Newspapers Co.""Analysis of the investigative team"
''Mainichi Newspapers'', 2008-07-20. Nevertheless, ''WaiWai'' content was reported as fact in blogs and reputable foreign media sources.
Telegraph.co.uk, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 2008-7-22 In April and May 2008, an aggressive anti-''WaiWai'' campaign appeared on internet forums including 2channel. Criticism included "contents are too vulgar" and "the stories could cause Japanese people to be misunderstood abroad.""WaiWai is dead"
''Japan Inc'', 2008-06-22. Critics had accused the WaiWai column of propagating a racist stereotype of Japanese women as sexual deviants with its sensationalist stories about incest, bestiality and debauchery. On June 20, a news site J-CAST reported on this issue. The Mainichi editorial board responded by deleting controversial WaiWai articles and limiting archive access, but the column remained in the ''Sunday Mainichi''.
''Mainichi Newspapers'', 2008-07-20. Citing continuing criticism, Mainichi's Digital Media Division shut down ''WaiWai'' on June 21. Mainichi also announced it would "severely punish the head of the Digital Media Division, which is responsible for overseeing the site, the manager responsible for the column and the editor involved with the stories." On June 25, Mainichi apologized to MDN readers. Some advertisers responded to the campaign by pulling ads from ''Mainichis Japanese site."The Birth of Blog Discourse"
(translation of blog post in ''CNET Japan''), ''Néojaponisme'', November 6, 2008. On June 28, 2008, Mainichi announced punitive measures.
''Mainichi Newspapers'', 2008-06-28. Connell, who remained anonymous in the announcement, was suspended for three months ("issuing three months' disciplinary leave").The writer was Ryann Connell. Justin Norrie

''The Age'', 2008-07-05. Other involved personnel were either docked 10%–20% salary or "stripped of their titles" for a period of one or two months. On July 20, 2008, Mainichi released the results of an in-house investigation. Mainichi announced that it would re-organize the MDN Editorial Department on August 1 with a new chief editor, and would re-launch the MDN on September 1 as a more news-oriented site."Mainichi Daily News to start over again"
''Mainichi Daily News'', 2008-07-20. Mainichi said, "We continued to post articles that contained incorrect information about Japan and indecent sexual content. These articles, many of which were not checked, should not have been dispatched to Japan or the world. We apologize deeply for causing many people trouble and for betraying the public's trust in the Mainichi Shinbun."

Offices

*, corporate headquarters :1-1-1, Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda,

* :3-4-5, Umeda, Kita-ku,

* : Midland Square, 4-7-1,

Meieki is a major railway station in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Japan. It is one of the world's largest train stations by floor area (410,000 m2), and houses the headquarters of the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). Much of this space is located in ...

, Nakamura-ku,

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most p ...

* :13-1, Konya-machi, Kokura Kita-ku, Kitakyushu :1314 W. McDermott Dr, Allen (Dallas) Texas USA (Central Region)

Sponsorship

Like other Japanese newspaper companies, Mainichi hosts many cultural events such as art exhibitions and sporting events. Among them, the most famous are the Senbatsu High School baseball tournament held every spring at Koshien Stadium, and the non-professional baseball tournaments held every summer in the Tokyo Dome (formerly held in Korakuen Stadium) and the end of the fall in the Osaka Dome. The company sponsors a number of prominent annual road running competitions in Japan, including the Lake Biwa Marathon and the

Beppu-Ōita Marathon The is an annual men's marathon race that takes place every February between the cities of Beppu and Ōita on the island of Kyushu in Japan. The race has IAAF Silver Label Road Race status and is a listed course of AIMS (Association of Interna ...

References

External links

*
The Mainichi in English
{{Authority control Daily newspapers published in Japan English-language newspapers published in Japan Mass media companies based in Tokyo Publications established in 1872 Centrist newspapers Centre-left newspapers Liberal media in Japan 1872 establishments in Japan Japanese-language newspapers