JOURNALISM IN JAPAN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 39, 14 August 1926, Page 20

JOURNALISM IN JAPAN

NOVEL NEWS AGENCY.

A noteworthy advance in the development of Japanese journalistic enterprise, noteworthy because this is the first time that the Japanese /srnacular papers have combined for their mutual benefit, is the announcement of the formation of the "Nippon Shimbun Rengosha," that is, the Associated Press of Japan, states tho Tokio correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." This is composed of the eight leading dailies of Tokio and Osaka, commanding 70 per cent, of the newspaper circulation of Japan, together with two of the leading news agencies, tho Kokusai and the Par Eastern, tho latter of which is operating in China only, as equal partners undertaking the collection and distribution among themselves of a world-wide service of foreign news.

The organisation, which is modelled on the lines of the Associated Press of America, in respect of its non-profit-making basis, differs from its prototype in that at present it is concerned with news only, does not cover the domestic news field, and proposes to sell imported service to other smaller metropolitan and provincial papers at rates within their capacity to pay. According to the promoters, the organisation proposes to work in the closest relations with Reuters and other services with which the Kokusai is allied, reporting and interpreting foreign happenings in accordance with the needs, requirements, and tastes of the news-reading public of Japan.