On the day after the Study Tour, Sergio Oliveira and I went together with friends from CONPT to Yokohama, the harbour city of Tokyo, to see the Japanese Newspaper Museum. The museum was established 10 years ago and is run by a foundation initiated by the Japanese Newspaper Association NSK.
The museum, called Newspark, opened on 12 October 2000 in the heart of Yokohama, the birthplace of Japanese daily newspapering. The museum uses three full floors of the Yokohama Media and Communication Centre; total floor space is 5200 square metres.
The museum comprises the Newspark gallery, the Newspark theatre, a production studio, the NIE National Centre (NIE = Newspaper in Education), historical exhibits, contemporary exhibits, the advanced technology gallery, a newspaper library, and a museum shop and bistro.
One exhibit shows a Japanese newspaper page with text in German that welcomes the airship Graf Zeppelin after its non-stop flight from Berlin to Tokyo.
The museum illustrates in an interesting fashion the evolution of Japanese society, the development of journalism, and technological change. Upon entering the foyer you see a portion of an early TKS newspaper offset press (VBW type) in full height. This press printed newspapers at Shizuoka Shimbun from 1979 to 1997.
