Jiji Press

About Jiji Press

Jiji Press (Japanese: 株式会社時事通信社, Kabushiki gaisha Jiji Tsūshinsha) is a Japanese news agency headquartered at Ginza 5-15-8, Chuo, Tokyo. It is a private, employee-owned company founded on 1 November 1945 following the breakup of Dōmei Tsushin, the government-controlled news service that operated during and before World War II. Jiji maintains 78 offices in Japan and 28 offices overseas, including a bureau in New Delhi staffed by a chief correspondent, and supplies up-to-the-minute news to about 140 media organisations — newspaper publishers, broadcasters and publishing companies — as well as directly to the public through its news portal jiji.com. Its official website is jiji.com.

Origins: the breakup of Dōmei Tsushin

Jiji Press was formed in November 1945 in the wake of Japan's defeat in World War II, when the Allied occupation authorities disbanded Dōmei Tsushin, the state-controlled news agency that had been responsible for disseminating information prior to and during the war. Dōmei's functions were split between two new agencies: Jiji Press inherited its business-oriented news operations, while Kyodo News inherited its general, public-oriented news operations. This division of labour has shaped both agencies ever since — Jiji developed a particular strength in economic and financial news, while Kyodo became the larger general news wire.

Dōmei Tsushin itself had been founded in 1936 and grew into one of the world's largest news agencies, serving a propaganda function for the Japanese government and military. It was authorised by the military to develop news networks and radio stations in Japanese-occupied Singapore and Malaya, and at its height issued news sheets posted at mines, farms and shops across Japan, the Korean Peninsula and occupied China. Its disbandment in 1945 marked the start of the postwar Japanese news-agency system, with Jiji and Kyodo as its two pillars.

Employee ownership and structure

Jiji Press is structured as a private employee-owned kabushiki kaisha (joint-stock company). Its president has been reported as Masao Omuro, with Katsuhiko Sakai identified as president and CEO in 2025 corporate communications. The agency reported 862 employees in its financial disclosures, with net income of 262 million yen, total assets of 38 billion yen and total equity of 21 billion yen in 2016 figures. Its corporate credo is "Bringing world affairs to Japan and sharing Japanese voices with the world."

The employee-owned structure is unusual among major world news agencies and is presented by the company as a guarantor of editorial independence. Unlike state-owned wires or publicly traded media groups, Jiji's ownership rests with its own staff, a model that has persisted since its founding. The agency is headquartered in Ginza, in Tokyo's Chuo ward.

Newsgathering network

Jiji operates 78 offices across Japan and 28 offices overseas, a network that feeds what it describes as massive quantities of news and photographs from around the world. Its journalists include domestic staff reporters and foreign correspondents, supplemented by the output of partner international news agencies. Accuracy and speed are stated as the vital qualities of its services for delivering up-to-the-minute news to subscribers.

The agency's subscriber base includes about 140 media organisations — newspaper publishers, broadcasters and publishing companies — in Japan and abroad, along with financial institutions, the Japanese government and other organisations. Japanese diplomatic establishments overseas are among its clients. In addition to its wholesale wire services, Jiji serves the general public directly through its news portal website, jiji.com.

The New Delhi bureau

Jiji Press maintains a bureau in New Delhi, the Indian capital, led by a chief correspondent. The bureau's role is to gather news on Indian politics, the economy, society and diplomacy, and to cover South Asian developments for Jiji's Japanese subscribers. Recruitment notices for the bureau have sought an assistant correspondent in New Delhi with more than five years of full-time journalism experience, proficient in English and Hindi, to assist the chief correspondent with news gathering, interviewing, writing and managing the bureau — an indication of the bureau's steady, small-footprint operation.

The New Delhi bureau covers a beat of growing importance for Japanese readers: India-Japan economic ties, infrastructure cooperation, security dialogue, and India's role in the Indo-Pacific. Jiji's India reporting feeds both its domestic Japanese wire and its international clients, and the bureau chief's byline appears on Jiji's coverage of Indian elections, summits and major domestic developments.

International partnerships

Jiji has built long-standing partnerships with the world's major news agencies. Its collaboration with Agence France-Presse dates back to December 1949, only four years after Jiji's founding, and was renewed in a long-term agreement signed in Paris by the AFP chairman and the Jiji president. Under the arrangement, AFP's global coverage in text, photos and graphics reaches Japanese clients through Jiji, while AFP supplements its coverage of Japan with Jiji's text and picture output. Jiji has also developed ties with United Press International, the Associated Press and Reuters.

In 2025, Jiji extended this partnership model into artificial intelligence, launching "Fastlook", a generative-AI-powered news translation service developed in collaboration with AFP. The service was presented as a tool for Japanese companies and organisations navigating turbulent global changes, and as a milestone in the AFP-Jiji partnership. Also in 2025, Jiji signed a media cooperation agreement with China's Xinhua News Agency.

Notable episodes in Jiji's history

Jiji's postwar record includes several episodes that drew public attention. In 2011, Jiji reported that Olympus chief executive Michael Woodford had blackmailed company management into appointing him CEO in exchange for promises to cover up an accounting fraud scandal. Woodford disputed the report, saying Jiji's unnamed sources had lied and that the agency had reported those lies without proper scrutiny. Jiji later withdrew the report and apologised.

In 2012, Jiji president Masahiro Nakata resigned after it emerged that a Jiji writer in Washington, D.C. had copied an article wired by Kyodo News, Jiji's domestic rival. The plagiarism incident and the president's resignation underscored the agency's stated emphasis on accuracy and editorial standards. In 2025, the agency's formal statements came under an unusual form of scrutiny when a public release about a staff photographer's remarks was criticised in Japanese media commentary for lacking basic document-governance elements.

Products and services

Beyond its core Japanese-language wire, Jiji provides a wide range of news, data and information products. Its economic and financial news services — inherited from Dōmei's business operations — remain a particular strength, serving banks, brokerages and corporate clients. The agency also supplies photo services, data products and English-language content for international clients and for Japanese companies operating abroad.

The jiji.com portal delivers news directly to the public, while the agency's business-to-business services include customised news feeds, databases and, since 2025, the AI-assisted Fastlook translation service developed with AFP. The breadth of the product range reflects Jiji's evolution from a wholesale wire into a diversified information company serving media, corporate, government and public audiences.

Jiji's place in Japanese media

Alongside Kyodo News, Jiji Press forms one half of Japan's postwar news-agency duopoly. While Kyodo is the larger agency and serves as the primary general-news wire for most Japanese newspapers, Jiji has carved out a distinct identity through its business-news heritage, its employee ownership, and its international partnerships. Its reporting is a staple of the Japanese business press and of regional newspapers that rely on agency copy.

In the international arena, Jiji is less visible to English-speaking audiences than Kyodo, but its foreign bureaus — including New Delhi — make it a consistent source of Japan-oriented reporting from Asia. The agency's coverage of India has grown in salience as Japan-India ties have deepened across trade, infrastructure and security, and the New Delhi bureau remains Jiji's window on South Asia for its Japanese subscribers.

Current status

As of 2026, Jiji Press remains active as one of Japan's two national news agencies, operating its domestic and overseas bureaus, its wire services and its jiji.com portal. Its recent moves — the AFP Fastlook AI translation launch, the Xinhua cooperation agreement, and continued investment in multimedia and social-media distribution — indicate an agency adapting its 1945 foundations to a digital and AI-assisted news environment. The New Delhi bureau continues to anchor its South Asia coverage, supplying Japanese media with reporting on one of Asia's most consequential bilateral relationships.