NSK holds 60th National Convention in Nagano City

NSK's 60th National Newspaper Convention was held in Nagano City on Oct. 16-17, attracting the attendance of a total of 555 executives and officials of NSK member companies.

At the opening session on the first day of the conference, Tsuneo Watanabe, the chairman of the board and editor-in-chief of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, and Toshitada Nakae, a former president of the Asahi Shimbun, received the Newspaper Culture Awards reported upon in our October issue of this Bulletin. The awards ceremony also conferred the respective prizes for the recipients of this year’s NSK Awards (for fiscal 2007).

The annual convention adopted a key resolution on the continuing importance of newspapers in the current era:

“Today's world is shrouded by incessant disputes and a continued deterioration of the global environment. The gap in living conditions is widening at home and abroad, and people are in dire need of accurate reporting and access to persuasive opinions on how to achieve the goal of a peaceful society filled with hope.

“By fully acknowledging the reality of the Internet society, the newspaper continues to aspire be a most relevant entity, deeply bonded to its readers in a mission of serving as a reliable point of navigation in a sea of information abundance.

“In holding this 60th National Newspaper Convention, we reaffirm our mission of reporting the news and renew our pledge of our full commitment to achieving that mission.

<< back

Organization to Promote a Culture of Reading holds Founding Meeting

The Characters Culture Promotion Organization held its inaugural first meeting in Tokyo on Oct. 24 in the aim of reversing the public decline in reading and of raising the level of the public's linguistic ability.

The participants at the founding meeting adopted a resolution calling for the organization to campaign to help raise the linguistic ability of the Japanese people. The resolution also calls for the year 2010 to be named “National Reading Year.” The organizers received legal registration for the institute as an incorporated foundation the day before the start of the meeting.

The Characters Culture Promotion Organization was set up by representatives of the newspaper and publishing industries assisted by experts in the aim of complementing the Law for the Promotion of Reading Culture and the Law for the Promotion of Children’s Book-Reading Activities. The organization will address the task of promoting newspaper- and book-reading, defending Japan's resale price maintenance system (which guarantees that printed reading materials be made available to the public at the same price nationwide) and coping with the planned increase in the national consumption tax on such sales.

NSK Chairman Masato Kitamura was appointed vice president of the new organization, while NSK’s two vice chairmen were chosen as directors. All NSK directors representing the national newspapers, excluding Kitamura’s Mainichi Shimbun and the Chunichi Shimbun, were elected as trustees of the new institute.

Representing the organizers, Yoshiharu Fukuhara, the honorary chairman of Shiseido Co., who was selected to be the first president of the new organization, delivered a speech to the participants at the founding meeting. Fukuhara said the continuing erosion of reading culture is a loss that is having grave consequences on Japanese society. He said the new organization will address the important task of building Japan up as a country with a reading culture through a long-term approach of sponsoring a national drive to accustom the public to the habit of reading.

The guest speakers, popular rakugo storyteller Shunpu-tei Koasa and Prof. Ryuta Kawashima of Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, delivered a joint lecture in which they highlighted the significance of a reading culture and the beauty of the Japanese language.

Prof. Kawashima said that research into the function of the human mind has established that reading activates the workings of the brain. Referring to local newspapers that regularly carry educational materials for reading out loud, he stressed that availability of reading materials in the home is conducive to the healthy nourishment of children.

NSK Announces Recipients of Community Contribution Awards

NSK on Oct. 3 announced the first recipients of its new awards for activities by newspaper sales agents and their employees that significant contribute to their respective local communities.

The top award is to be issued in recognition of the charitable activities of a group of women proprietors and wives of proprietors of newspaper sales agents affiliated with the Kochi Shimbun in Kochi Prefecture. A special award will be given to a woman employee of one agent dealing exclusively in the Chunichi Shimbun in Aichi Prefecture. That award recognizes her 14 years of assistance to financially troubled students from Sri Lanka. The award is also to be given to nine other persons or groups and to five others who have been nominated for an incentive award.

The awards presentation ceremony will be held at the general meeting of the 7th Newspaper Fair Trade Council on Nov. 21 at the National Press Center Hall in Tokyo’s Uchisaiwai-cho district.

The NSK Community Contribution Award was established earlier this year to raise public awareness of newspaper sales agents’ contributions to local communities and to reinforce their status and respect in the eyes of the public. The award is also intended to encourage agents to promote diverse activities for the wellbeing of their respective local communities, thereby also enhancing their sense of belonging as members of local communities and their strict compliance with all related laws and regulations.

The award recipients were selected from among 84 nomination requests submitted by individual newspaper sales agents, their regional federations and affiliated groups all over the country.

The winner of the top award is “Nadeshiko-kai,” the women’s division of the federation of newspaper sales agents affiliated with the Kochi Shimbun. Nadeshiko-kai comprises 39 female operators of distribution agents and 94 wives of other agent operators and others. The group has been organizing a charity bazaar that has been held annually since 1990 to donate its proceeds to the Kochi Shimbun-initiated foundation for the improvement of local medical services and for the wellbeing of the suffers of intractable diseases. The bazaars sell groceries, vegetables and other donations from readers and executives of the newspaper company. The group has won high acclaim for keeping up its charitable activities involving newspaper readers for so many years.

Ms Toshiko Kuwayama is to be the recipient of a special award. She delivers the morning issue of the Chunichi Shimbun through its affiliated sales agent in the town of Anjo-Imaike, Aichi Prefecture. She has been donating her entire \40,000 monthly salary for the past 14 years to a scholarship foundation to enable students in financial difficulties in Sri Lanka to advance into high school or university. In addition, Kuwayama has been the foster parent of two children in Afghanistan, while donating \100,000 every year to a scholarship fund providing financial assistance for the education of children whose parents perished in traffic accidents. She also donated \1.5 million for the reconstruction of a Sri Lankan elementary school that was swept away by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

NSK Submits Plan for Cutting CO2 Emissions, other "Green" Efforts

NSK on Oct. 26 presented the Environment Ministry with a voluntary action plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions by its member companies. NSK member newspaper companies and news agencies pledged to cut their carbon dioxide emissions at their head offices and factories by 5 percent from their respective 2005 levels by the fiscal year 2010.

NSK's action program is an example of how NSK member companies can work together to meet their corporate social responsibilities in the pressing area of preserving the environment for future generations. Taking available steps to protect the environment through a wide range of corporate activities going well beyond news reporting is a way NSK members can strive to contribute to society in cooperation with their readers and communities.

As part of their "green" initiatives, NSK member companies are undertaking to carry more articles on environmental issues and more related advertisements in their newspapers, as well as organizing various supportive events. NSK members will also seek to meet or exceed ISO 14001 criteria for the international standard for environmentally friendly office management at their respective head offices and factories. They are also committed to encouraging employees to shut off the lights and in all other ways more diligently work for energy conservation. Additional measures will include a stepped-up introduction of energy-saving vehicles for newspaper delivery and support for forestation projects.

<< back