Jiji Shimpō Opens a Daily Newspaper and Commercial Newsroom

Jiji Shimpō’s first issue appeared on March 1, 1882, after the 1881 political crisis disrupted an earlier plan for a government-connected newspaper. Fukuzawa Yukichi and younger associates, including his nephew Nakamikawa Hikojirō, turned the preparations into a paper claiming independence from parties.

The first issue had four pages and was printed with a hand-operated press. Printing and dispatch took place at the Keiō publishing premises in Mita. Its sections combined official notices, current news, columns, telegrams, foreign reports and advertisements. Editorials appeared without signatures, sometimes continuing across more than one issue.

Fukuzawa supervised editorial work, while Nakamikawa developed the commercial side, including circulation and advertising revenue. These tasks made publication a recurring operation: writing alone could not put a daily issue into readers’ hands.

The paper’s independence was a stated political position, not a guarantee of neutrality. Its unsigned editorials also require care in attribution. Writers, revisers and printing staff could all affect the published text; editorial responsibility does not establish that Fukuzawa personally wrote every article later associated with the newspaper.