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 mentioned 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 preserve industrial printing presses — pricey machines that may be as tall as an workplace block and churn out greater than 1,000,000 newspapers per 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 knowledge present circulation dropping 38% over a decade to fewer than 29 million papers final yr. 

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

“The one-sided resolution was extraordinarily regrettable,” the Hokkaido Shimbun mentioned in a press release. “As a consumer, we will’t probably 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 mentioned in a press release that it’s going to talk about the influence of its resolution with shoppers. 

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 consumer it’s very unlucky, however we perceive repairs and different companies will proceed so we don’t foresee any inconveniences,” Yomiuri mentioned. The paper at present operates about 40 presses procured from Mitsubishi Heavy starting within the Nineteen Eighties.

The abrupt exit of Mitsubishi Heavy — which has constructed greater than 700 presses because the Sixties — means shoppers should discover another. One apparent if not inevitable alternative shall 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 trade’s decline, the Mainichi Shimbun, one of many greatest nationwide shops, lately mentioned 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 recognition of on-line media and the appearance of generative synthetic intelligence has solely compounded labor shortages introduced on by a shrinking, getting old inhabitants.

“Trains was once full of individuals studying newspapers,” mentioned 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 Warfare II, he mentioned, however now just one stays. 

On a scorching summer season 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 skim fastidiously, which might be why they’ve fallen behind,” Kawada mentioned. “What’s occurring is unavoidable.”

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