There are more than 121 dailies in Japan, with a combined circulation of over 71 million copies. This is the largest circulation in the world. The table below gives the circulation of the most important international and Japanese newspapers. The Yomiuri Shimbun is the largest among Japanese newspapers and worldwide newspapers, with more than 10 million copies a day.

One of the major characteristics of the Japanese newspapers is that almost 94 % of them are home-delivered. Japanese start the day by reading the newspaper. Thanks to Japan's high literacy rate, Japanese are per capita the greatest readers of newspapers in the world. A survey of the JNPEA showed that more than 80% of the Japanese read newspapers everyday. This can be explained by the fact that Japan is a highly urbanized society, and many Japanese have to commute one to two hours by train, giving them plenty of time to read one or two newspapers, or even more.

Many local Japanese newspapers are based in the prefectures' capital and distributed only in one prefecture. There are about 65 regional and local dailies, which can sometimes be more influential locally than the national dailies.

Some Japanese newspapers report only for a well-segmented market. There are for example dailies only reporting for the Chemical industry or the transportation industry. This allows for a well-targeted message towards a well-chosen public.

The large Japanese newspapers also have their own English version, which compete for English-speaking readership with the Japan Times, the only daily newspaper to appear only in English. Getting Japanese news in English is therefore no problem in Japan.  However, to reach the Japanese public, one has to make optimal use of the Japanese version of dailies. Only a very limited number of Japanese read the English version.

Read also our information on one of the following topics:

| Public Relations Philosophy | Doing Business in Japan |
| Media Relations | Japanese Newspapers |