Japan’s newspapers are scrambling after one of the country’s two biggest printing press makers said it was bowing out of the business for good.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. announced in late June that it was shuttering its printing press operations after filling existing orders. Staffing at the division has fallen by more than 75% from a peak of 400 employees in 2000.
For decades, most print outlets in Japan relied on Mitsubishi Heavy or Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho Ltd. to manufacture, install and maintain industrial printing presses — costly machines that can be as tall as an office block and churn out more than a million newspapers a week.
But as people flock to digital news, print circulation revenues are falling globally. Even in Japan, where newspaper racks are ubiquitous, readership has plunged. Japan Newspaper and Publishers Association data show circulation dropping 38% over a decade to fewer than 29 million papers last year.
Although Mitsubishi Heavy will continue maintenance and repair services until 2036, the news was a huge blow to many of the nation’s rags.
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“The one-sided decision was extremely regrettable,” the Hokkaido Shimbun said in a statement. “As a user, we can’t possibly accept this.”
The paper, based in Sapporo, has a daily circulation of 763,000 distributed to households across Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. It ordered three printing presses from Mitsubishi Heavy in 2017.
Mitsubishi Heavy said in a statement that it will discuss the impact of its decision with clients.
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Another key customer is Yomiuri Shimbun, one of the world’s most widely circulated newspapers with a daily print run of more than six million.
“As a long-time user it’s very unfortunate, but we understand repairs and other services will continue so we don’t foresee any inconveniences,” Yomiuri said. The paper currently operates about 40 presses procured from Mitsubishi Heavy beginning in the 1980s.
The abrupt exit of Mitsubishi Heavy — which has built more than 700 presses since the 1960s — means clients will have to find an alternative.
One obvious if not inevitable choice will be competitor, Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho, but manufacturing and installing an industrial newspaper press is a years-long process, and doubling production wouldn’t be easy.
Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho declined to comment.
In another sign of the industry’s decline, the Mainichi Shimbun, one of the biggest national outlets, recently said it would no longer distribute papers in Toyama prefecture after September — its first departure from any part of the country.
Then last Friday, the Asahi Shimbun announced it was going to stop distributing evening papers in Shizuoka, Yamaguchi and Fukuoka in October, owing to the rising costs of paper materials and delivery.
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In Japan, the growing popularity of online media and the advent of generative artificial intelligence has only compounded labor shortages brought on by a shrinking, aging population.
“Trains used to be full of people reading newspapers,” said Kichiro Kawada, 72, who helps run a newspaper stand near Shibuya Station. There used to be five stands in the area that opened up right after World War II, he said, but now only one remains.
On a hot summer morning last week, hoards of pedestrians passed by the stand as they rushed between the station and Shibuya Scramble Crossing. Only a handful stopped to buy a paper or a magazine, or a sleazy tabloid and a pack of cigarettes.
“Newspapers are good for people who want to take their time and read carefully, which is probably why they’ve fallen behind,” Kawada said. “What’s happening is unavoidable.”
