Japan news, front pages compared
Crosswire tracks 6 major Japan news outlets. Preview their homepages side by side below — switch between two, three and four columns, go compact, or translate every page into your language. Or jump straight to a curated comparison by political leaning.
The Japan media landscape on Crosswire
Crosswire lays Japan's front pages next to one another so you can see which stories lead where, how headlines are framed, and what one outlet foregrounds that another leaves out. The 6 titles tracked here span the spectrum — 1 we place on the left, 3 near the centre and 2 on the right — so a comparison can genuinely cross editorial lines rather than sampling one side twice.
By kind of outlet, the 6 titles break down as 4 daily newspapers (see all daily newspapers worldwide), 1 business daily (Nikkei) and 1 public broadcaster (NHK News). The public-service broadcaster is NHK News — the natural fixed point for a comparison, because a public remit is breadth rather than a party line.
Japan sits in East Asia, on Crosswire's Asia hub. By outlets tracked it is 2nd of the 6 countries in East Asia and 5th of the 33 across Asia, where the average is 5.1 outlets per country. Its neighbours in East Asia with hubs of their own are China (6), South Korea (6), Taiwan (6), Hong Kong (6) and Mongolia (4).
Leaning groupings are approximate guides drawn from widely cited media-bias assessments — see the methodology and what the labels can and can't tell you. Counts are taken from the directory as of .
Which are Japan's main news outlets?
Across Japan's editorial spectrum, Crosswire currently lists on the left, Asahi Shimbun; near the center, Nikkei, Mainichi and NHK News; on the right, Yomiuri Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun. Each outlet below links to a full profile — its facts, editorial leaning and a live front-page preview — and the comparison view above shows any of them side by side.
The Yomiuri Shimbun is a Japanese national daily newspaper and one of the largest-circulation newspapers in the world, published in Japanese from Tokyo. It covers national and international news, politics, and economics for a mass readership and is generally regarded as conservative-leaning in its editorial stance. It is a cornerstone of Japan's national press.
The Asahi Shimbun is a major Japanese national daily newspaper published in Japanese from Tokyo and one of the country's highest-circulation papers. It provides comprehensive national and international coverage and is widely regarded as liberal-leaning in its editorial orientation. It is one of Japan's most influential and long-established newspapers.
The Nikkei, formally Nihon Keizai Shimbun, is Japan's leading business and financial daily, published in Japanese from Tokyo. It specializes in economic, corporate, and market news for business professionals and investors and is the publisher behind the Nikkei stock index. It is among the most influential business newspapers globally.
The Mainichi Shimbun is one of Japan's major national daily newspapers, published in Japanese from Tokyo with an English-language online edition. It covers national and international news, politics, and society for a broad readership and is among the country's oldest and most established press titles.
The Sankei Shimbun is a Japanese national daily published by the Sankei Shimbun Co., part of the Fujisankei Communications Group. Founded in 1933 as an industrial paper, it is consistently characterized as conservative and nationalist, positioned to the right of Japan's other national dailies, and is known for hawkish positions on defense and constitutional revision.
NHK is Japan's public broadcaster, funded primarily by a statutory receiving fee and operating under the Broadcasting Act, which requires impartiality. Its news division runs the country's largest broadcast newsgathering operation, and NHK News Online publishes around-the-clock coverage of domestic politics, disasters, business, and international affairs; its reporting is broadly regarded as centrist.
Explore other countries
Reading the news critically
The vocabulary and the method behind these comparisons.