Japanese-Language Paper in Brazil to Close after 72 Years

December 20, 2018

Sao Paulo--The Sao Paulo Shimbun, a Japanese-language newspaper in Brazil, will be discontinued with its Jan. 1, 2019, edition due out Saturday, an official of its publisher said Thursday.

Established on Oct. 12, 1946, the newspaper has been an opinion leader in the world's largest society of "Nikkei" Japanese descendants abroad. Its sales reached 80,000 copies in the mid-1960s.

But the Sao Paulo-based paper has faced a plunge in sales in recent years due to the aging of readers and declining use of Japanese in Nikkei society in the South American country.

According to the publisher, 90 pct of its readers are first- and second-generation immigrants who read Japanese, with their average age exceeding 80. Its circulation has kept falling due to the death of subscribers.

"It's heartbreaking," said Masao Suzuki, editor-in-chief and president of the publisher.

The newspaper has been "in the same boat as Nikkei society," mainly first-generation immigrants, but "times have changed, and we couldn't help it," Suzuki said.

Suzuki wished good luck to the Nikkey Shimbun, a rival Japanese-language paper based in the Brazilian city.

"I've always looked forward to reading news about Brazil and Japan," said Toshie Aoki, an 81-year-old Sao Paulo resident who has been a Sao Paulo Shimbun subscriber for 20 years.

"It's a great shame, and I'm so sad," said Aoki, who is from the southwestern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka.

After the end of World War II, a lack of information led to conflict between Japanese immigrants who believed Japan had won the war and those who acknowledged its defeat. The conflict turned bloody, leaving over 20 people dead.

The Sao Paulo Shimbun was established by those who acutely felt the need for the distribution of accurate information in Japanese.

The paper won Japan's prestigious Kikuchi Kan prize for its contributions to Nikkei society in 1977.

For decades after the war, the Sao Paulo Shimbun competed with two Japanese-language newspapers in Brazil. The two merged to create the Nikkey Shimbun in 1998, reducing the number of players in the market to two. Jiji Press