The Rafu Shimpo: The Last Voice for Japanese Americans
In the heart of Little Tokyo stands the influential Japanese-English language newspaper that is the last of its kind. Rafu Shimpo’s first issue was published in 1903 and remains the nation’s longest running Japanese-American daily newspaper. This bilingual paper brings its community international, national and local news. It serves both newly immigrated Japanese people and U.S. citizens. According to the Los Angeles Times, when the paper first began back in 1903, it was a one-page mimeographed Japanese paper created by three Japanese American students. In 1922, H.T. Komai took over as publisher and began a family dynasty. H.T. Komai then started Rafu Shimpo’s English section in 1926 due to the large numbers of Nisei, Americans whose parents immigrated from Japan.
“Rafu Shimpo is unique newspaper,” said Senior Editor Gwen Muranaka. “Our [Japanese and English] stories are different. Some are similar, like community news, but in Japanese we cover news in Los Angeles and also Japan.”
Rafu Shimpo temporarily closed in 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and many Japanese Americans were forcibly sent to relocation camps. It was revived after World War II with its first postwar issue published on Jan. 1, 1946. Since then and up to current times, Rafu Shimpo has hit some rough patches to stay afloat. According to a 2010 article published by The Los Angeles Times, Rafu Shimpo’s circulation was down to 11,000, which is half its peak in the 1980s. They were more than 500,000 in debt and had a monthly deficit of $7,000.
In a more recent 2016 article by The North American Post, Rafu Shimpo faced the threat of closure due to its long time financial struggle. Many Japanese American Newspapers have faced the same issues, to which they were forced to close. That same year, the publisher of Rafu Shimpo published an open letter about the state of the Japanese American paper. He addressed the paper’s financial struggles and worried that if the situation did not improve it might have faced closure in Dec. 2016. That would have marked the extinction of Japanese American daily news in the United States.
Regarding Rafu Shimpo’s readership, their target audience are of Japanese descent. Within Los Angeles, Asians are the second largest immigrant group, after Latinos, making up almost a third of the foreign-born population of the city, according to 2018 data gathered from the American Community Survey. Japanese people only make up 1% of Eastern Asian immigrants in Los Angeles.
The fact that nearly three-fourths of 400,000 ethnic Japanese in California are U.S. natives is adding to Rafu Shimpo’s struggle, as first or second generations seemingly do not read ethnic newspapers. Michelle Toshio is a first generation Japanese American who works out of Little Tokyo. Despite not reading the paper herself, she admires the work Rafu Shimpo does and how it helps bilingual speakers in the community.
“I am a first generation Japanese American and I’ve seen a lot of Rafu Shimpo papers and articles,” said Toshio. “I don’t really read it, but I work here in Little Tokyo so it’s nice to see they put a lot of work in reporting everything that happens here and also all throughout the United States.”
Rafu Shimpo has the advantage of being based in Little Tokyo, where a lot of events take place and many Japanese institutions are located. A key issue that they put a lot of emphasis on while reporting is civil rights. They have a lot of articles covering the many political issues in America, especially those that may affect Japanese immigrants. They also write to support Japanese American candidates that run for political office and any useful stories that may help the Japanese community understand the state of the U.S. government.
Since the closure of many bilingual Japanese American news outlets, Rafu Shimpo has served as the only primary source for Japanese people to access news on their community. Rafu Shimpo looks to keep the community informed and together as they frequently go out and scope Little Tokyo as well as highlight the many events that happen. They are a publication that covers a wide array of topics, but typically look to stay on the more serious side of reporting.
As far as social media, Rafu Shimpo prevails on Facebook and Instagram. They receive standard engagement from people on these sites, but they are sure to respond to any messages or comments that are left on their page. Anytime there is an event in Little Tokyo, their special projects editor, Junko Yoshia, posts on Instagram stories and highlights the post for later viewing. Their typical audience is older people who are most commonly found on Facebook, so they use most of their social media efforts to make sure their page is constantly up to date. Kevin Omokawa stands out in this regard. As a younger reader, The 27-year-old third generation Japanese American picked up Rafu Shimpo from his parents and has since then never put it down.
“I like how Rafu Shimpo is bilingual,” said Omokawa. “I don’t know much Japanese but I like to keep up with my culture so I can read on stuff that happens in the Japanese community, but in English.”
Rafu Shimpo’s mission is to report on the news and events happening in the Japanese community. They ever so often cover big stories out of Japan, like any natural disasters for example, but usually tend to remain local. So far, Rafu Shimpo has remained on a comfortable constant. Their readership has not fallen, but it has not expanded to incredible numbers either. In order to expand, I believe Rafu Shimpo should look into reviving their twitter account and seek out a younger audience. Millennials and Gen Z tend to get their news mainly from Social Media, especially Twitter, so this is something they can definitely capitalize on. Overall, as the only standing Japanese American news publication, Rafu Shimpo is meeting their goal in keeping the community informed.
