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Show i NEWSPAPERS IN JAPAN I ?y FREDERIC J. JIASKIN : i I !NTo ont5 feature of Wcstorn civilira-tion civilira-tion Ikls obtuiued u stronger bold upon the people of Japan than the newspaper. news-paper. The .Tnp.'iiifso proas exercise a powerful influence, not only upon polities, poli-ties, but upon the social lifo of the people. It has been tho medium thrmmh which the comparatively few men educated in Western ideas have imparted their new-found knowledge to , the masses. As in ihc United States, j there are all sorts' ami conditions ot newspapers here, but they may fjener- , ally bo, divided into two classes the solicr journals and the "vellows. " One class is marked by its dignified atti-tudo atti-tudo whether in praise or criticism; the other bv its intemperate 'editorial tone, its bold headlines in red ink, and its appeal to tho masses as against tho classes. Japanese iopsy-turvydoin cannot be found in tho manner in which newspapers news-papers are conducted: it is manifest i only in their" mechanical aspect. The j Japanese road from rieht to left, and their written or printed lines run from the lop to tho bottom. Consequently, the columns of a uowspaper run across the pajrn horizontally instead of vertically. ver-tically. The linotype is impossible in Japan, because tho printer must have types for over five thousand different e'harnolers, and no typc-so'ttintf machine could supply such a demand. So that the making of a newspaper is alto-ecther alto-ecther different in the boyinuing. The type is selected by one set of men, ar ranged by another, audi turned over lo the make-up, man, who arranges the pages in the manner of his Western brother, except that he works upside down and crosswise. Then comes the stereotypy and tho web perfecting press, and the differences between tho Occident and Orient arc submerged and obliterated by the triumph of modem mechanical science. The newspaper itself, it-self, if translated into Knglish, would be quite familiar to the American reader.' There is cable news from abroad, telegraph news from all over the I3mpire, local news, society happenings, happen-ings, politics, theatrical news, sports, features, cartoons, a continued story and advertisements. The want ads are led by the matrimonial classification, but their style is about the same as tho American. There are Iaily weather forecasts, fore-casts, Uie railroad time-table and the daily adventures of the almond-eyed cousins of Buster Brown and Happy Hooligan. .. The Tokio Asnlu -is -conducting- a. tour around the world for fifty young men. the party now being in the U'nited States. The" Jiji Shitnpo has been carrying on a beauty contest, printing ov?rv dav a half page of half-tone cuts of fair Nipponese belles who arc entered en-tered in the lists in response lo the .liji's acceptance of the challenge of a Chicago newspaper to beat its selection selec-tion of a Chicago girl as the most, beautiful beau-tiful womau in the world. This beauty contest created great excitement in Japan, and proved to be a circulation-' fetter for ihc Jiii. The comic weeklies took it up, and Tokio Puck published j a cartoon of the winner of the first, j prize, dreaming of the American mil- J liouaire who would see her picture in Chicago and cross the Pacific, to claim his almond-eyed bride. . Tho attention paid to American affair.-? is illustrated by the enterprise displayed .bv a Tokio paper when Congress Con-gress met last December. Nut being able to secure an advance copy jf President Pres-ident Koosovelt's message to Congress, it succeeded in having an inte.lligrnt bvnnpsis made in the United States that cbuld be placed upon the wire as soon a the reading of the message was begun be-gun in Congress. This synopsis was owr a thousand words in h-ngth and cost. the paper over .ySOO for transmission. transmis-sion. fc The national sport of Japan is wrestling, and tho groat matches arc held in Tokio twice n year, in January I and May. The wrestlers are paid an annual salary, and whether . thoir stipend is augmented or diminished is determined by the exhibition of prow-ens prow-ens at these two festivals. Tho wrcst- . lers arc in training for two weeks drinking as many gallons of beer each dav as possible to niako thuin fat. Tho To1;io newspapers spud special correspondents corres-pondents to the- training quarters, columns col-umns of gossip are printed each day, and snaii-shots of the heroes in characteristic char-acteristic attitudes appear from time to time. Then a baseball team from Hawaii Ha-waii came to play a series with a Tokio college nine, tho newspapers treated it with columns of space, just as American Ameri-can dailies pltiy up the post-series championship games between tho loaders load-ers of the rival major leagues. r. Taft landed in Yokohama at 0 o 'clock in the morning. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the Tokio Hochi was on the street with half-tone pictures of the distinguished American on his way down the gang-plank. In the present pres-ent political campaign the leading newspapers will send- special correspondents corres-pondents to close districts to follow the candidates on the hustings. During the late war with Uussia nearly overy newspaper in Japan had a man at the front, and the war news was givcu to the people in extra, which appenred with a frequency reminding one of New York in ISO'S. The business end of tho newspaper also follows closely the pattern of the western journalism. The papers are circulated for from ten to twetitv-five cents a month, less than it costs to produce them. In Japan, as in America, Ameri-ca, circulation is a losing game and pro- i (It must come from advertising. The rates for advertising hero are exceed- I iugly high in proportion to the general standard of living. One of the leading lead-ing newspapers of Tokio charges thirty cents a lino, six lines lp the inch. Pa .per is cheaper than in the United States and labor costs nothing like as much. The typesetters receive from fifteen to tiftv cents a day, the foreman not more than a dollar. In the press room lifty cents a day is considered high wages. Tho editorial helpers arc bet ter;paid, .reversing tbj ,ru,c obtain- " "iiig "iiT the -Uint'cl .States, where tho average reporter receives a smaller salary sal-ary than the compositor who puis his copy into type, v The Jiji Shimpo. or Times newspaper, has its main office in Tokio, but it publishes pub-lishes a simultaneous edition in Osaka. oG0 miles awaw Tho work is done by telephone, the Tokio edition being trans mittcd verbatim over four wires leased front the Imperial postoflice. It is re ceived by shorthand writers, who tran9 k cribe tho copy by details and rush it to the nrinler in Osaka within a few minutes after the proof sheets have reached the Tokio editorial rooms. The Ji.ji has a circulatiou of -tlO.POi) copies. Tt is one of the representatives of the higher class of conservative newHpapers, its rank being shared by the Tokio Asahi and several others. The Hochi is the leading radical paper, being positive posi-tive in its political views, although not yellow. The "yellow .journals" arc numerous all over the empire and many of them have an enormous circulation. 4 . The bitterness of attacks upon political polit-ical opponents in tho sensational press goes tar beyond the worst exhibitions j of journalistic venom known in America Ameri-ca todav. Sixty years ago the purely political sheets" in the United State's-may State's-may have ben as furious as their Japanese Jap-anese successors of today, but the tilth employed by the lower elans Japanese editor has been utterly impossible among i T'liglish speaking people since long before be-fore the newspaper was born into t'n- ; world. Of -course, the freedom of the press does not extend so far that an I attack could lie made upon the eni- peror. lie is still regarded as souu -thing innro than human, as the tangible center of the national spirit against which no patriot ihay sin in word, thought, or deed. The worst, thing a .Japanese eritic can say of an opponent oppo-nent in politics js: ''He is false to the Km peror. " h In front of Ihc publication office of any Tokio paper, or at branch ofiiecs. crowds are constantly gathered about the bulletin, boards. The very lowest and poorest of people buy newspapers, and through them gain an idea of what is going on in the world. Jiipanest peasants have been heard diseussiug in their own language the probabilities of Ir. Koosovelt's taking another lenn of office and then making himself emperor. em-peror. This incident shows that tin Japanese point of view is such that h cannot always interpret foreign new corrocilv, but it must be romeniboro that thirl years ago the Japanes peasant did iiot know America existed and was firm in the belief that Japan anil China made up the whole world, to May nothing of hi.? theory that the Sun and Moon were made in Japan and afterwards hung up in the heavens. t In the cities the people who two vears ago formed mobs to throw etoncs at the terrible foreign devil invention willed a trolley car. are now demanding one-cont fares and municipal ownership owner-ship of rapid, transit facilities. Tie inwfljiapers did this. When Chiea" was mi the throes of a campaign on rapid transit and municipal ownrrn! question. Ihc Japanese newspapers t ' their people, about it. Thev took : municipal ownership side, and Ikt Tokio m to own its own street car lir. These examples of the MM'luence Of )i now'spapers in bringing Western id . to tho maasca of th" people illustv -. what a force thr Orient.: 1 press nv.y come. Tho f'fty millions of Japan - are being i f ached bv newspaper -- k four hundred ' millions of Chinese u..i. |