Bungeishunjū

Bungeishunjū Ltd.
株式会社文藝春秋
Founded 1923
Founder Kan Kikuchi
Country of origin Japan
Headquarters location Chiyoda, Tokyo
Key people Tōru Ueno, president
Publication types magazines and other publications
Number of employees 366 (July 2009)[1]
Official website www.bunshun.co.jp
The company office in Chiyoda, Tokyo

Bungeishunjū Ltd. (株式会社文藝春秋 Kabushiki-gaisha Bungeishunjū), established in 1923, is a Japanese publishing company known for its leading monthly magazine Bungeishunjū. It grants the annual Akutagawa Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in Japan, as well as the annual Naoki Prize for popular novelists. It also grants the annual Bungeishunjū Manga Award for achievement in the manga and illustration fields. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo.[1]

The company publishes Bungakukai (文學界), the weekly Bunshun (週刊文春), and the sports magazine Number, which represent public opinion of literary, political, and sport-journalistic culture, respectively. The Bunshun, in particular, has come to be known for litigation involving freedom of speech issues, particularly alleged privacy violations and defamation; see, for example, Mitsuo Kagawa.

List of magazines

The magazines published by Bungeishunjū include:

Company history

Bungeishunjū was founded in 1923 by writer Kan Kikuchi. The company was disbanded in March 1946 but was reestablished in June of the same year.[1]

Marco Polo Holocaust denial article

In February 1995 a Japanese magazine named Marco Polo, a 250,000-circulation monthly published by Bungei Shunju, ran a Holocaust denial article by physician Masanori Nishioka which stated:

"The 'Holocaust' is a fabrication. There were no execution gas chambers in Auschwitz or in any other concentration camp. Today, what are displayed as 'gas chambers' at the remains of the Auschwitz camp in Poland are a post-war fabrication by the Polish communist regime or by the Soviet Union, which controlled the country. Not once, neither at Auschwitz nor in any territory controlled by the Germans during the Second World War, was there 'mass murder of Jews' in 'gas chambers.'"[2]

The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center instigated a boycott of Bungei Shunju advertisers, including Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, and Cartier. Within days, Bungei Shunju shut down Marco Polo and its editor, Kazuyoshi Hanada, quit, as did the president of Bungei Shunju, Kengo Tanaka.[3]

Contributors and editors

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bungeishunjū company profile and history Retrieved on 2 October 2009. (Japanese)
  2. ↑ Masanori Nishioka, "The Greatest Taboo of Postwar World History: There Were No Nazi 'Gas Chambers'" Marco Polo, February 1995.
  3. ↑ "The IHR Denounces Campaign Against Japanese Publishing Company," The Journal of Historical Review, March/April 1995 (Vol. 15, No. 2), page 9.

External links

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