Description:
The Asahi Shimbun is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 8.27 million for its morning edition and 3.85 million for its evening edition as of April 2004, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun began publication in Osaka on January 25, 1879 as a small-print, four-page illustrated paper that sold for one sen (a hundredth of a yen) a copy, and had a circulation of approximately 3,000 copies.