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Broadcast and traditional media · Japan

Mainichi Shimbun Co., Ltd.

mainichi.jp ↗

Mainichi Shimbun is a 154-year-old Japanese national daily now shrinking faster than its rivals.

Losing its protection
Assessed 26 July 2026 · Evidence as of 26 July 2026
The structural protection is eroding.
On the recordSince 26 July 2026 · Checkable from January 2027 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: SoftBank's Garan AI licensing platform targets commercialization; first revenue disclosure would follow
The call

A once-dominant national paper is cutting editions and exiting whole prefectures while AI systems harvest its journalism for free, with no licensing deal yet proven to offset either loss.

Mainichi Shimbun is a 154-year-old Japanese newspaper that publishes news in print and online, but it is shrinking much faster than its competitors like Yomiuri and Asahi. The company faces two big threats: larger newspapers are stealing its readers, and AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are answering questions directly without sending people to Mainichi's website, which means fewer subscriptions and less money. The one thing that could turn this around is if Mainichi's new deal with SoftBank to license AI technology starting in early 2027 actually brings in real revenue, but that bet has not been proven yet.

Why
01
AI pressure: Perplexity AI. PerplexityBot scrapes and reproduces articles without payment, pulling readers away while giving nothing back; Mainichi filed a formal protest in Dec 2025. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun. Circulation fell 15.5% YoY, worse than Yomiuri (-6.0%), Asahi (-6.1%), and Nikkei (-4.5%), while Asahi's revenue runs nearly five times larger. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Brand trust and an investigative bureau network built over 154 years, though this no longer stops subscriber losses.
What would change this call
Garan AI licensing commercializes on schedule with disclosed Q1 2027 revenue. Shows whether AI licensing becomes a real revenue line or stays a token gesture.
Next circulation report shows decline still near or past -15.5% YoY. Confirms contraction is accelerating rather than stabilizing toward peer levels.
Another prefecture-level delivery exit or edition cut is announced. Signals physical footprint contraction is compounding, not plateauing.
Key numbers
  • Circulation down 15.5% YoY to ~1.40M (2024)
  • Revenue fell to ¥58.0B from ¥59.5B (FY2024)
  • Exited Toyama Prefecture delivery entirely (Sept 2024)
Named risks
  • Circulation declining faster than every named national peer, down 15.5% YoY as of 2024 data. Severity: high
  • AI answer engines like Perplexity intermediating readers away from mainichi.jp with no compensated resolution yet. Severity: high
  • Repeated physical footprint contraction including prefecture delivery exits and edition cuts since 2024. Severity: high
  • Garan AI licensing revenue unproven, full commercialization not targeted until January 2027. Severity: medium
  • Governance and compliance incidents including a data loss affecting about 700 staff. Severity: medium
Rivals, as read in July 2026
RivalDirectionEvidence
Yomiuri Shimbunlosing toMainichi circulation fell 15.5% YoY vs Yomiuri's 6.0% decline, as of data cited June 2026
Asahi Shimbunlosing toAsahi's FY2025 revenue of 278.07 billion yen is about 4.8 times Mainichi's 57.966 billion yen (FY2024)
Nikkeilosing toNikkei's circulation declined only 4.5% YoY versus Mainichi's 15.5%, per data cited June 2026
Perplexity AIlosing toMainichi filed a scraping protest in December 2025 over uncompensated content extraction
Chunichi Shimbunlosing toRegional paper Chunichi posted FY2025 revenue of 99.08 billion yen, nearly double Mainichi's
Questions people ask
Is Mainichi Shimbun losing readers faster than other Japanese newspapers?
Yes. Mainichi's circulation fell about 15.5% year over year to roughly 1.40 million in 2024, compared to declines of 4.5% to 7.9% at Yomiuri, Asahi, Nikkei, and Sankei over the same period, per data cited as of June 2026.
Is Mainichi Shimbun profitable?
Public filings show revenue declining, not profit figures directly, but group sales fell from about 59.5 billion yen in FY2023 to about 58 billion yen in FY2024, a contraction pattern that suggests shrinking margins as circulation and print delivery also shrink.
Could AI replace Mainichi Shimbun's journalism?
Not the investigative reporting, Mainichi's bureau network spans Washington, New York, China, Seoul, London, Paris, Moscow and the Middle East, and it won a January 2025 journalism award, but AI answer engines like Perplexity are already diverting readers from mainichi.jp as of December 2025.
Who is Mainichi Shimbun's biggest competitor?
Domestically, Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, with Asahi's FY2025 revenue of about 278 billion yen versus Mainichi's roughly 58 billion yen. Increasingly the bigger threat is AI intermediaries like Perplexity and ChatGPT pulling readers away from its own site.
What is SoftBank's Garan AI and how does it involve Mainichi Shimbun?
Garan AI is a SoftBank platform, joined by Mainichi and other Japanese papers, that resells processed article data to AI developers with revenue sharing back to publishers. A trial launched July 22, 2026, with full commercialization targeted for January 2027.
Has Mainichi Shimbun taken action against AI companies scraping its content?
Yes, Mainichi filed a formal protest against Perplexity AI in December 2025, alleging unauthorized crawling and reproduction of its articles by PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User, and demanded disclosure and deletion of the scraped content.
Timeline
  • 2026-07-22SoftBank's Garan AI data licensing trial launches with Mainichi and other publishers
  • 2026-02-26Mainichi reports OpenAI disclosure of China linked ChatGPT misuse against Japan's PM
  • 2025-12-01Mainichi files formal protest against Perplexity AI over unauthorized content scraping
  • 2025-08Mainichi suspends its Saturday evening edition nationwide
  • 2025-03Mainichi suspends delivery in Shimane's Iwami region and 93 Hokkaido municipalities
  • 2025-01-16Mainichi wins Japan journalism award for public security investigation series
  • 2024-09Mainichi exits home delivery in Toyama Prefecture entirely, its first full prefecture exit
  • 2023-06Mainichi raises combined AM/PM subscription price to 4,900 yen per month
Revision history
26 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
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