Mainichi Shimbun
Japanese newspaper
The Mainichi Shimbun (毎日新聞, Mainichi Shinbun; Japanese pronunciation: [mai.ɲi.tɕi̥ ɕiꜜm.bɯɴ], lit. 'Daily Newspaper') is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by The Mainichi Newspapers Co.
In addition to the Mainichi Shimbun, which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English-language news website called The Mainichi (毎日; [mai.ɲi.tɕi], previously Mainichi Daily News, abbreviated MDN), and publishes a bilingual news magazine, Mainichi Weekly. It also publishes paperbacks, books and other magazines, including a weekly news magazine, Sunday Mainichi.
It is one of the four national newspapers in Japan; the other three are The Asahi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The Sankei Shimbun and the Chunichi Shimbun are not currently in the position of a national newspaper despite a large circulation for both.
History
The history of the Mainichi Shimbun began with the founding of two papers during the Meiji period. The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun was founded first, in 1872. The Mainichi claims that it is the oldest existing Japanese daily newspaper with its 136-year history. The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun was founded four years later, in 1876. The two papers merged in 1911, but the two companies continued to print their newspapers independently until 1943, when both editions were placed under a Mainichi Shimbun masthead.
The public source identifies “Mainichi Shimbun” as japanese newspaper. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mainichi, Shimbun and Japanese.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1136866. VIAF identifies the subject as 266378155. The Library of Congress control number is n87918707. 1 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1872, 1876, 1911 and 1943.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mainichi Shimbun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.