After lunch we visited the Tokyo printing plant of the renowned Nikkei newspaper, the leading financial paper of the country. The Nikkei Tokyo newspaper printing centre is a 100% owned company of Nihon Keizai Shimbun. This plant in Shinonome is the biggest printing facility of the Nikkei group and delivers newspapers for most of the Tokyo area together with the Kawasaki plant.
Nikkei is Japan’s first newspaper that can print 48 pages straight, 24 of them in colour. The new Diamond Star presses supplied by Mitsubishi run at 90,000 copies per hour. They are equipped with image-based closed-loop density control Diamond Eye (CQC). The plant is certified according to ISO 14001 and supports saving of energy and natural resources.
On 23 March 2010 the company started an electronic version of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun called WEBCAN that makes it possible to read the paper on a PC or smartphone. Nikkei is aiming for a coexistence of paper and electronic publishing.
In contrary to the general trend, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun is able to maintain its circulation of three million copies. In total, the company publishes five different titles as well as online services, TV and radio. About 1300 reporters in 60 offices in Japan and 35 overseas sites work for the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. A paperless editing system (PLES) has been introduced and a unique layout system (EDISON 21) is run for all tiles. Full size page proof and digital page transfer to the print sites are part of the standard workflow.
Nikkei uses newsprint as light as 40 g/sqm. This “ultralight” newsprint has been developed together with paper suppliers and press manufacturers. Mr. Yusuke Naito presented the details of the development process towards 40 g/sqm newsprint. Finally, the president of the printing plant, Mr. Yoichi Motohashi, welcomed the WAN-IFRA Study Tour group and talked about the facts and goals of his company.
