Printing Press Maker’s Exit Leaves Japanese Newspapers in Limbo

Japan’s newspapers are scrambling after one of many nation’s two greatest printing press makers stated it was bowing out of the enterprise for good.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. introduced in late June that it was shuttering its printing press operations after filling present orders. Staffing on the division has fallen by greater than 75% from a peak of 400 staff in 2000.

For many years, most print shops in Japan relied on Mitsubishi Heavy or Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho Ltd. to fabricate, set up and keep industrial printing presses — expensive machines that may be as tall as an workplace block and churn out greater than one million newspapers every week.

However as folks flock to digital information, print circulation revenues are falling globally. Even in Japan, the place newspaper racks are ubiquitous, readership has plunged. Japan Newspaper and Publishers Affiliation information present circulation dropping 38% over a decade to fewer than 29 million papers final yr. 

Though Mitsubishi Heavy will proceed upkeep and restore providers till 2036, the information was an enormous blow to lots of the nation’s rags.

“The one-sided resolution was extraordinarily regrettable,” the Hokkaido Shimbun stated in a press release. “As a person, we are able to’t presumably settle for this.”

The paper, based mostly in Sapporo, has a each day circulation of 763,000 distributed to households throughout Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. It ordered three printing presses from Mitsubishi Heavy in 2017. 

Mitsubishi Heavy stated in a press release that it’ll focus on the impression of its resolution with purchasers. 

One other key buyer is Yomiuri Shimbun, one of many world’s most generally circulated newspapers with a each day print run of greater than six million. 

“As a long-time person it’s very unlucky, however we perceive repairs and different providers will proceed so we don’t foresee any inconveniences,” Yomiuri stated. The paper at the moment operates about 40 presses procured from Mitsubishi Heavy starting within the Eighties.

The abrupt exit of Mitsubishi Heavy — which has constructed greater than 700 presses for the reason that Sixties — means purchasers must discover another. One apparent if not inevitable selection will probably be competitor, Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho, however manufacturing and putting in an industrial newspaper press is a years-long course of, and doubling manufacturing wouldn’t be simple. 

Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho declined to remark.

In one other signal of the business’s decline, the Mainichi Shimbun, one of many greatest nationwide shops, just lately stated it could not distribute papers in Toyama prefecture after September — its first departure from any a part of the nation.

Then final Friday, the Asahi Shimbun introduced it was going to cease distributing night papers in Shizuoka, Yamaguchi and Fukuoka in October, owing to the rising prices of paper supplies and supply. 

In Japan, the rising reputation of on-line media and the arrival of generative synthetic intelligence has solely compounded labor shortages introduced on by a shrinking, growing old inhabitants.

“Trains was once full of individuals studying newspapers,” stated Kichiro Kawada, 72, who helps run a newspaper stand close to Shibuya Station. There was once 5 stands within the space that opened up proper after World Battle II, he stated, however now just one stays. 

On a scorching summer time morning final week, hoards of pedestrians handed by the stand as they rushed between the station and Shibuya Scramble Crossing. Solely a handful stopped to purchase a paper or {a magazine}, or a sleazy tabloid and a pack of cigarettes. 

“Newspapers are good for individuals who wish to take their time and browse fastidiously, which might be why they’ve fallen behind,” Kawada stated. “What’s occurring is unavoidable.”

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