The Japan Times

The Japan Times
The Japan Times
Type Daily
Format Broadsheet
Staff writers Approx. 260
Founded 1897
Language English
Headquarters Tokyo and Osaka, Japan
Official website japantimes.co.jp
Yukiko Ogasawara (小笠原 有輝子 Ogasawara Yukiko?), the president of The Japan Times, with her father, Toshiaki Ogasawara, the publisher and chairperson, in a November 2007 photograph taken by Joi Ito

The Japan Times is an English language newspaper published in Japan. Unlike its competitors, the Daily Yomiuri and the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, it is not affiliated with a Japanese language media organization. It is published by the The Japan Times, Ltd. (株式会社ジヤパンタイムズ Kabushiki Kaisha Japan Taimuzu?), which is headquartered in the Japan Times Nifco Building (ジャパンタイムズ・ニフコビル Japan Taimuzu Nifuko Biru?) in Shibaura, Minato, Tokyo.[1][2]

  • Motto: "All the News Without Fear or Favor", "The World's Window on Japan"
  • Chairperson: Toshiaki Ogasawara (小笠原 敏晶 Ogasawara Toshiaki?)
  • Capital: ¥476,437,000 ($5,135,700; €3,781,000; £3,330,000)
  • Business: Publishes The Japan Times, The Japan Times Weekly, Shukan ST bilingual weekly, books in English and Japanese

Contents

History

A 1942 editorial cartoon from the The Japan Times depicting a dejected Uncle Sam joining Winston Churchill in erecting grave markers for Allied ships which Japan had sunk, or claimed to have sunk, at the battle of the Coral Sea and elsewhere

The Japan Times was launched by Motosada Zumoto in 1897 with the goal of giving Japanese an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English in order to help Japan to participate more fully in the international community.[3]

  • 1897: Inaugural issue of The Japan Times (March 22)
  • 1918: Name changed to The Japan Times and Mail
  • 1940: Name changed to The Japan Times and Advertiser
  • 1943: Name changed to Nippon Times
  • 1951: First Issue of The Student Times (now Weekly ST) weekly
  • 1961: The Japan Times Weekly inaugurated
  • 1966: Moves from Uchisaiwai-chō, Chiyoda-ku, to new building in Shibaura, Minato-ku
  • 1983: Toshiaki Ogasawara becomes the 18th president
  • 1987: Opens full-time editorial bureau in Osaka
  • 1989: New Japan Times-Nifco Building completed
  • 1996: InterFM radio station was inaugurated
  • 1997: The Japan Times celebrates its centenary
  • 2006: Yukiko Ogasawara becomes the 19th president
  • 2007: Price raised from 150 yen to 180 yen (October 1)

At first, the paper was independent of government control, but from 1931 onward, the Japanese government was mounting pressure on the paper's editors to submit to its policies. In 1933, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed to appoint Hitoshi Ashida, former Ministry official, as chief editor.[4] During World War II, the newspaper served as an outlet for Imperial Japanese government propaganda and editorial opinion. The paper's circulation at that time was about 7,000.[5]

Content

Print

The Japan Times prints two newspapers, their English daily which runs around 16-24 pages, and their English weekly which is 20 pages(tabloid form) in length.[6] Their content is organized into five sections:

  1. News: includes Nation, Business, and Tohoku-Kanto earthquake news
  2. Opinion: includes Editorials, Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor.
  3. Life in Japan: includes life and style, community, media, technology, food and drink, travel, environment, education, cartoons
  4. Entertainment: includes film, art, music, stage, books, event previews, festival listing
  5. Sports: includes World cup, Olympics, baseball, soccer, basketball, figure skating, Sumo

Web

The Japan Time's newsprint stories are archived on their online site. While their print section contains a reader's forum, their website does not currently offer a section for reader's comments below the articles. The Japan Times has begun service on both Twitter and Facebook.[7]

Regular contributors

  • Debito Arudou
  • Philip Brasor
  • Sir Hugh Cortazzi
  • Matthew Larking, Art critic
  • Donald Richie
  • Mark Schilling, Film reviewer
  • Peter Vescey, Sports columnist
  • Robbie Swinnerton, Restaurant reviewer
  • Giovanni Fazio, Film reviewer
  • Judit Kawaguchi
  • Daniel Robson
  • Kaori Shoji, Film reviewer

Former contributors

Employee unions

Staff at The Japan Times are represented by two unions, one of which is Tozen.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Map to the Japan Times." (Image) The Japan Times. Retrieved on October 15, 2011. "4-5-4 Shibaura Minato-ku"
  2. ^ "Map to The Japan Times." (Japanese version, Image) The Japan Times. Retrieved on October 15, 2011. "ジャパンタイムズ・ニフコビル 港区芝浦4-5-4"
  3. ^ Kamiya, Setsuko, "Japan Times not just wartime mouthpiece", Japan Times, 13 August 2011, p. 3.
  4. ^ Peter O'Connor, The Japan Times at War Time: Mouth piece or Moderator?
  5. ^ Kamiya, Setsuko, "Japan Times not just wartime mouthpiece", Japan Times, 13 August 2011, p. 3.
  6. ^ "English daily". The Japan Times Online. The Japan Times. https://club.japantimes.co.jp/subscriptions/new/jt/index_e.html. Retrieved 16 October 2011. "English weekly". The Japan Times Online. The Japan Times. https://club.japantimes.co.jp/subscriptions/new/jt/index_e.html. Retrieved 16 October 2011. 
  7. ^ "Twitter account". http://twitter.com/#!/japantimes. "Facebook account". http://www.facebook.com/thejapantimes. Retrieved 16 October 2011. 
  8. ^ "Tozen - The Japan Times". Tozen. August 7, 2010. http://tokyogeneralunion.org/branches/japan-times/. Retrieved 08-07-2010. 

External links

Portal icon Tokyo portal
Portal icon Journalism portal
Stub icon This Asian newspaper-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.