Factbook

A Dynamic Compendium of Interesting Japanese Literary and Publishing Facts
If you would like to contribute to this compendium please submit your ideas here.
All will be considered for publication by our expert panel.
  • Factbook Keyword Search:
  • Share
    • Newspapers

    In the 1880’s when authors of newspaper novels started getting bylines in Japan the country decided to update its libel laws[UPDATED: 11-10-2026]

    In the 1870s and 1880s several newspapers and magazines were launched in Japan that would go on to become some of Japan’s most important and influential publications.

    These publications included major newspapers such as the Mainichi Shimbun launched in 1872 and the Yomiuri Shimbun launched in 1874; as well as Japan’s oldest continuously published magazines, Chuo-Koron and Toyo-Keizai, which were launched in 1887 and 1895 respectively. 

    These launches all took place in Japan’s Meiji Era (1868-1912) when new technologies and commodities, including printing and papermaking machines and wood pulp newsprint, arrived in Japan for the first time.

    It was a period when the nation was modernising at a breathtaking pace after a long period of self-imposed isolation. These changes, and a large number of newly launched publications, presented significant challenges for the authorities as new regulatory regimes and rules had to be designed, implemented and revised to keep up with Japan’s publishers.

    The launches of these publications followed in the wake of Japan’s introduction of its first copyright legislation in 1869, the Publication Ordinance, which was drafted by Junjiro Hosokawa (1834-1923) and the launch of Japan’s first magazine, Seiyo-Zasshi, in October 1867. 

    The Publication Ordinance didn’t just cover copyright, it also prohibited certain types of content, such as pornography, and introduced publication review and other regulatory processes that were at times used to suppress anti-government opinions.

    Nevertheless, the new technologies helped create many new important publications and an independent press in Japan. Naturally, it also made possible the dissemination of information in all its myriad forms, whether facts, gossip, falsehoods, slander and abuse.

    In the same way as social media throws up challenges today, so too did the new printing technologies during the Meiji period. Laws and regulations had to be constantly updated; in 1870 and in 1871, for example, and then again in 1875 when the draconian Law of Libel and Slander was implemented.

    This makes the period a rich one for academic study and for students and scholars of censorship, which has led to academic papers and books by some of the most prominent international scholars of Japan. Such people as Jay Rubin, who is probably now more famous for his translation of works by Haruki Murakami, and Richard H. Mitchell, author of Censorship in Imperial Japan, for instance. 

    Historically, authors got round censorship rules and other restrictions by serving up political and social commentary as fantasy storytelling and other “fictional” accounts. Initially, many newspapers and their writers used similar tried and tested techniques. However, over time new standards emerged, which eventually led to newspaper novels, Shimbun Shosetsu, which are still popular today, being launched in 1886, by the Yomiuri Shimbun. This helped distinguish factual from fiction content within their pages. 

    As Shimbun Shosetsu grew in popularity (according to The Rise and Fall of Modern Japanese Literature by John Whittier Treat), authors were identified by name, given bylines and the Japanese law regulating the press and defining libel was rewritten. This made publishers, publications and authors all legally responsible for what was written and published.

    The laws associated with the press and publication were revised again in 1893, but subsequently remained virtually unchanged until Japan’s postwar constitution came into effect in 1947 and Japan’s subsequent signing of the Treaty of San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan in 1951.

    Prior to this, trials were rare, but did occur while censorship and the repression of controversial publications became commonplace. 

    Nonetheless, during the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) a different set of rules and regulations were applied that covered all aspects of regulation including determining which foreign books could or should be published in Japan in Japanese translation, as well as, for example, censorship related to the damage caused by the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

     

    In the 1880’s when authors of newspaper novels started getting bylines in Japan the country decided to update its libel laws Posted by Richard Nathan
  • Share
    • Newspapers

    Newspaper novels, Shimbun Shosetsu, still popular today, were launched in Japan in 1886 by the Yomiuri newspaper[UPDATED: 7-20-2020]

    There is some debate amongst academics about which work was the very first published newspaper novel, Shimbun Shosetsu, in Japan.

    Several are often mentioned, but some consider Torioi Omatsu Kaijo Shinwa, The New Martine Tales of Bird-Chasing Omatsu, by Hikosaku Kubota (1846-1898), published between 1877, and 1878, as one of the first, if not the very first, serialised newspaper novel. 

    It is a tale, allegedly based on a true story, of an attractive young woman who swindles her admirers, but in a twist of fate ends up being swindled herself in an early-age femme fatale type narrative.

    Omatsu, its protagonist, is an untouchable door-stopping beggar. At that time, such individuals were often given the moniker ‘bird-chaser’.

    The tale was published in 14 newspaper installments before being released as a woodblock-printed book, in 1878, based on the newspaper articles. A copy of which can be viewed online at Japan’s National Diet Library (NDL).

    It was, in a sense, a very early form of what is known today as fake news a type of reportage referred to in the 1880s in Japan as tsukuribanashi, manufactured stories.

    Omatsu’s exploits were initially reported as news and not as fiction in the newspaper and used to promote newspaper sales and expand readership. 

    Omatsu’s tale was published before what is generally considered Japan’s first modern novel in 1887, Ukigumo, The Drifting Cloud, by Futabatei Shimei (1864-1909).

    This was also before the Yomiuri newspaper, its publisher, which now claims to have the largest circulation of any newspaper in the world,     had created a dedicated section headed Shimbun Shosetsu, Newspaper Novel, clearly distinguishing fictional information from facts reported in its pages.

    It took almost a decade from the publication of     The New Martine Tales of Bird-Chasing Omatsu for the newspaper’s Shimbun Shosetsu section to be launched in 1886, formally differentiating these two types of distinct content types, and spawning the genre of the Newspaper Novel.

    Kubota’s tale may not fall neatly into the definition of a modern novel in terms of its style, narrative and structure, despite using the often-exploited and occasionally iconic stock character of a protagonist who is a dangerous seductress, sometimes referred to in Japan as dokufu, poisonous women.

    Nonetheless, according to John Whitter Treat in The Rise and Fall of Modern Japanese Literature it ‘constituted the first modern readership in Japan by virtue of its scale.’ He considers it to be Japan’s first bestseller newspaper generated novel. 

    The Konjiki Yasha, The Gold Demon, by Koyo Ozaki (1968-1903) published between 1897-1903 is also cited as one of Japan’s first important serialised novels.

    Also know as The Usurer in English. It was alongside Hototogisu, The Cuckoo, by Kenjiro Tokutomi (1868-1927) one of the two bestselling works of literature in Japan’s Meiji period (1868-1912). 

    Serialised fiction published in newspapers is still popular today in Japan. High profile authors such as Mitsuyo Kakuta, Fuminori Nakamura and Kazufumi Shiraishi continue to write Shimbun Shosetsu with great success.

    The Yomiuri newspaper, the largest of Japan’s so-called big five national newspapers, is also still heavily involved in the publishing and promotion of literary fiction, now clearly marked as fiction, through its newspapers, and magazines such as Chuo-Koron one of Japan’s oldest continuously published magazines,

    The newspaper also organises literary prizes, owns a book publishing company, and the serialised fiction the Yomiuri continues to publish in its morning and evening editions is still enjoyed by millions throughout Japan.

    Newspaper novels, Shimbun Shosetsu, still popular today, were launched in Japan in 1886 by the Yomiuri newspaper Posted by Richard Nathan