Japan's newspaper subscription rate falls below 50% for the first time

According to the fiscal 2026 survey results released by the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association on the 10th, the proportion of respondents in Japan who subscribe to newspapers on a monthly basis fell by 0.3 percentage points year-on-year to 49.8%. This is the first time it has fallen below 50% since the survey began in 2008. According to Japanese media reports, the survey on news access channels began in 2008, when the proportion of respondents who subscribed to newspapers on a monthly basis was 88.6%, meaning it has dropped by nearly 40% over the past nearly 20 years. This survey was conducted between July and August, targeting 5,000 people aged 18 and above across Japan, and obtained a total of 2,676 valid responses. Regarding the media channels the public used to obtain news during the week, the survey results showed that commercial television programs ranked first at 84.2%; the internet came second at 74.4%; public broadcaster NHK's television programs ranked third, newspapers ranked fourth, and radio programs ranked fifth.