Dōmei Tsushin

Dōmei Tsushin
The headquarters of Domei Tsushinsha, in Chiyoda, Tokyo.

Dōmei News Agency (同盟通信社 Dōmei Tsūshinsha?, literal translation Federated News Agency) was the official news agency of the Empire of Japan.

History and development

Dōmei was the end result of years of efforts by Japanese journalists and business leaders to create a national news agency in Japan that could compete with (and if necessary counter) Reuters and other internationally-recognized news agencies on a global basis.

After the Manchurian Incident of 1931, president Yukichi Iwanaga (岩永 裕吉 Iwanaga Yūkichi) of the Nihon Shimbun Rengosha (日本新聞聯合社 Associated Press, or “Rengo”) proposed the merger of his news agency with the Nihon Dempo Tsushinsha (日本電報通信社 Japan Telegraphic News Agency, or “Dentsu”). Despite government backing for the move, the merger was resisted by Dentsu president Hoshio Mitsunaga (光永 星郎 Mitsunaga Hoshio), who was reluctant to give up control of his company’s lucrative advertising business, and by concerns that a merger would threaten his advertising customer base – the provincial newspapers who competed against Rengo. As a compromise, Mitsunaga agreed to split Dentsu, and separate the news agency from the advertising agency. The news agency was reorganized in a merger with Rengo on 28 December 1935 to form the Dōmei Tsūshinsha.

During World War II, Dōmei News Agency came under the control of the Ministry of Communications (Japan), a pre-war cabinet level ministry in the Japanese government. Domei maintained a network of offices outside Japan, dispatching reporters to all Allied and neutral countries, and was also involved in film and radio work. It also collected news and information from various sources to pass on to the government and military, and produced various works of propaganda aimed at foreign countries.

Dōmei issued news to the public that was censored along government-approved lines, and broadcast news in Japanese and in major European languages through an extensive network of radio stations in east Asia, Manchukuo and in Japanese-occupied China. It was later authorized by the Japanese military to develop a news network and radio stations in Japanese-occupied Singapore and Malaya.

A number of documented incidents from the period around the outbreak of the Pacific War show that on a personal level Dōmei's staff had good relationships with foreign journalists.

Under the Allied occupation of Japan Dōmei was disbanded, and its functions divided split between Kyodo News (共同通信社) and Jiji Press (時事通信社) in 1945 following the end of World War II.

References

  • Huffman, James (2006). Modern Japan, An Encyclopedia of History, Culture and Nationalism. Routledge. ISBN 0815325258. 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Domei Tsushin — nihongo|Dōmei News Agency|同盟通信社| Dōmei Tsūshinsha| extra=literal translation Federated News Agency was the official news agency of the Empire of JapanHistory and DevelopmentDōmei was the end result of years of efforts by Japanese journalists and… …   Wikipedia

  • Nakajima Ki-19 — Ki 19 Nakajima Ki 19 after civilian converstion for Domei Tsushin news agency Role prototype twin engine …   Wikipedia

  • Nanking Massacre denial — Nanking Massacrev · d · e Battl …   Wikipedia

  • List of Japanese institutions (1930–1945) — This list of major Japanese institutions covers government and some private institutions and businesses, for the period 1930 to August 1945). Japanese Central Government Imperial affairs*Imperial Household Ministry **Privy Council (Japan) **Lord… …   Wikipedia

  • Japanese nationalism — (国家主義, Kokka shugi?) encompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Japanese people over the last two centuries regarding their native country, its cultural nature, political form and historical destiny. It is useful to… …   Wikipedia

  • Censorship in the Empire of Japan — in the Empire of Japan was a continuation of a long tradition beginning in the feudal period of Japan. Government censorship of the press existed in Japan during the Edo period, as the Tokugawa bakufu was in many ways a police state, which sought …   Wikipedia

  • Joseph Newman (journalist) — Joseph Newman was an American journalist and writer from New York.He worked for the New York Herald Tribune under George Cornish as Japan correspondent, living in Japan with Mary, his wife.During his period of residence in Japan, he made contacts …   Wikipedia

  • Goodbye Japan — is a non fiction book on Japan written by an American journalist Joseph Newman published in 1942. It was intended to reveal the position and intentions of that country just before the attack on Pearl Harbor.OverviewAt the time, many Americans… …   Wikipedia

  • Hibiya Park — nihongo|Hibiya Park|日比谷公園|Hibiya Kōen is a park in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan. It covers an area of 161,636.66m2 between the east gardens of the Imperial Palace to the north, the Shinbashi district to the southeast and the Kasumigaseki government …   Wikipedia

  • Potsdamer Deklaration — Die Potsdamer Erklärung vom 26. Juli 1945 legte die offiziellen amerikanisch britisch chinesischen Bedingungen für die Kapitulation Japans am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs fest. Sie ist nicht zu verwechseln mit dem Potsdamer Abkommen. Die Potsdamer …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”