Jiji Press

News agency based in Tokyo, Japan

Jiji Press Ltd.

Headquarters in Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo
Native name	株式会社時事通信社
Romanized name	Kabushiki gaisha Jiji Tsūshin-sha
Company type	Private employee-owned KK
Predecessor	Domei Tsushin
Founded	November 1, 1945; 78 years ago (1945-11-01)
Headquarters	Ginza 5-15-8, Chuo, Tokyo , Japan
Number of locations	78 offices in Japan, 28 offices overseas
Key people	Masao Omuro (President)
Net income	262 million yen (2016)
Total assets	38 billion yen (2016)
Total equity	21 billion yen (2016)
Number of employees	862
Website	jiji.com
Footnotes / references 2016 financials: [1]

Jiji Press Ltd. (株式会社時事通信社, Kabushiki gaisha Jiji Tsūshinsha) is a news agency in Japan.

History

Jiji was formed in November 1945 following the breakup of Domei Tsushin, the government-controlled news service responsible for disseminating information prior to and during World War II. Jiji inherited Domei's business-oriented news operations, while Kyodo News inherited its general public-oriented news operations. In later years Jiji developed ties with UPI, the Associated Press, AFP, Reuters and other international news organizations.^[1]

In 2011, Jiji reported that Olympus CEO Michael Woodford blackmailed company management into appointing him CEO in exchange for promises to cover up an accounting fraud scandal. Woodford argued that "the so-called unnamed sources at Olympus had clearly lied, [and] Jiji had without proper scrutiny and challenge simply reported those lies." Jiji later withdrew the report and apologized.^[2]

In 2012, Jiji president Masahiro Nakata resigned after it was found that a Jiji writer in Washington, D.C. copied an article wired by Kyodo News.^[3]

Corporate structure

Jiji is run as an employee-owned corporation and is not publicly traded, nor does it have non-employee shareholders. Jiji has news bureaus throughout Japan and in many major cities worldwide.

Jiji is the third-largest shareholder in Dentsu, holding 5.85% of the outstanding stock (16.9 million shares) as of December 2016.^[4]

References

^ "時事通信社会社案内". www.jiji.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 2017-03-17.
^ Adelstein, Jake. "What Michael Woodford Saw at Olympus". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
^ "Jiji president to quit over plagiarism". The Japan Times Online. 2012-06-20. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
^ "株式の状況・株主構成 - IR情報 - 電通". www.dentsu.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2017-03-17.