, often shortened to simply ''Asahi Geinō'' or , is a shūkanshi founded by Hirotomo Takei and published by

Tokuma Shoten is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company's product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, man ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It was first published under the title in January 1946, though the title and size were changed to the current one in October 1956. The longest-running manga in the world by a single author, ''

Sennin Buraku is a manga series by Kō Kojima which ran in the adult magazine '' Weekly Asahi Geinō'', published by Tokuma Shoten in Japan. It is the longest running comic with only one artist, being published weekly since October 1956, and the longest ...

'' by

Kō Kojima was a Japanese Mangaka, manga artist. He was best known for penning ''Sennin Buraku'' (running since 1956 in ''Weekly Asahi Geinō''), the longest running comic by a single artist. He attended the private in Koishikawa (now part of Bunkyō, Tok ...

, was published in the first issue with the new title, and ran from 1956 to 2014. The magazine tends to focus on sensationalized stories, celebrity gossip, stories about

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...

, articles with risque or

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

content or topics, and

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...

s. About 90% of the readership are married, male

salarymen The term is a Japanese word for salaried workers. In Japanese popular culture, it is portrayed as a white-collar worker who shows unwavering loyalty and commitment to his employer, prioritizing work over anything else, including family. "Salary ...

. ''Asahi Geinō'' frequently has articles related to

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

, and participates in campaigns to stem the

AIDS epidemic The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS ...

. Translations of and commentaries on articles from ''Asahi Geinō'' were common in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

newspaper ''

Mainichi Daily News The is one of the major newspapers 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 news website called , and publishes a biling ...

s now-discontinued column ''WaiWai''. Other articles in ''Asahi Geinō'' have covered include an apparent rise in 20-something

virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

s, the possibility of

breast milk Breast milk (sometimes spelled as breastmilk) or mother's milk is milk produced by the mammary glands in the breasts of women. Breast milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborn infants, comprising fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and a var ...

being a cure for

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...

, and accusations of

groping Groping is a form of sexual harassment involving the intentional inappropriate touching of another person commonly without their consent. The term generally has a negative connotation in many societies. Touching a consenting person's body d ...

while on a train (and advice on how to avoid being falsely accused). ''Weekly Asahi Geinō'' is not related to the similarly titled '' Weekly Asahi'' (which is owned by the also-unrelated ''

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 ...

'').

Criticism

The ''Asahi Geino'' has been criticized for attacking Japan's

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...

while at the same time publishing

nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and no ...

photographs and sex-related articles and stories.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Asahi Geino 1946 establishments in Japan Celebrity magazines Magazines established in 1946 Magazines published in Tokyo Men's magazines published in Japan Weekly magazines published in Japan Tokuma Shoten magazines