Type Daily newspaper Owner(s) Nifco President Takeharu Tsutsumi | Publisher Yukiko Ogasawara Managing editors Takashi Kitazume | |
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The Japan Times is Japan's largest English-language newspaper. It is published by The Japan Times, Ltd. (株式会社 ジャパン タイムズ, Kabushiki gaisha Japan Taimuzu), a subsidiary of Nifco, a leading manufacturer of plastic fasteners for the automotive and home design industries since 1983. It 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.
Contents
History
The Japan Times was launched by Motosada Zumoto on March 22, 1897, with the goal of giving Japanese an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English to help Japan to participate in the international community. 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. 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 825,000. It was successively renamed The Japan Times and Mail (1918–1940) following its merger with The Japan Mail, The Japan Times and Advertiser (1940–1943) following its merger with The Japan Advertiser, and Nippon Times (1943–1956) before reverting to the Japan Times title in 1956. The temporary change to Nippon Times occurred during ban of English language sentiment during World War II era Japan. Shintaro Fukushima (1907年- 1987) became the president in 1956. He exchanged each company's stock with Toshiaki Ogasawara (小笠原 敏晶 Ogasawara Toshiaki) . Shintaro renounce the managing rights in 1983. Thus Ogasawara's Nifco, a manufacturer of automotive fasteners, acquired control of The Japan Times in 1983 and changed all of former staffs and company's tradition established in 1897. Nifco chairman Toshiaki Ogasawara also served as the chairman and publisher of The Japan Times until his death on November 30, 2016. His daughter Yukiko Ogasawara (小笠原 有輝子 Ogasawara Yukiko) was president of the company from 2006 to 2012, when she was replaced by career Japan Times staffer Takeharu Tsutsumi. Yukiko succeed his father's position and become chairman of the company after his death.
The Japan Times, Inc. publishes three periodicals: The Japan Times, an English-language daily broadsheet; The Japan Times Weekly, an English-language weekly in tabloid form; and Shukan ST, a weekly in tabloid format, targeted at Japanese learning English. The daily's content includes:
- News: domestic and world news; domestic and overseas business news.
- Opinion: Editorials, Op-eds, and Letters to the Editor.
- Features: life and style, community, media, technology, food and drink, travel, environment, education, cartoons.
- Entertainment: film, art, music, stage, books, event previews, festival listing.
- Sports: domestic and overseas sports news, including coverage of baseball, soccer, basketball, sumo, figure skating.
Since 16 October 2013, the Japan Times has been printed and sold along with the International New York Times.
Web
Printed stories from The Japan Times are archived online. The newspaper has a reader's forum and, since 2013, the website offers a section for readers' comments below articles. This came about during a complete redesign and redevelopment of the newspaper, using Responsive Web Design techniques so the site is optimised for all digital devices. The Japan Times has a social media presence on Twitter (2007), Facebook (2007) and Google+ (2011).
Regular contributors
Former contributors
Employee unions
Staff at The Japan Times are represented by two unions, one of which is Tozen.