Jiji Press


Jiji Press Ltd. is a news agency in Japan.

History

Jiji was formed in November 1945 following the breakup of Domei Tsushin, the government-controlled news service responsible for disseminating information prior to and during World War II. Jiji inherited Domei's business-oriented news operations, while Kyodo News inherited its general public-oriented news operations. In later years Jiji developed ties with UPI, the Associated Press, AFP, Reuters and other international news organizations.
In 2011, Jiji reported that Olympus CEO Michael Woodford blackmailed company management into appointing him CEO in exchange for promises to cover up an accounting fraud scandal. Woodford argued that "the so-called unnamed sources at Olympus had clearly lied, Jiji had without proper scrutiny and challenge simply reported those lies." Jiji later withdrew the report and apologized.
In 2012, Jiji president Masahiro Nakata resigned after it was found that a Jiji writer in Washington, D.C. copied an article wired by Kyodo News.

Corporate structure

Jiji is run as an employee-owned corporation and is not publicly traded, nor does it have non-employee shareholders. Jiji has news bureaus throughout Japan and in many major cities worldwide.
Jiji is the third-largest shareholder in Dentsu, holding 5.85% of the outstanding stock as of December 2016.