Dean & King

The year (1853) which brought Commodore Perry and the West to Japan, brought to the Samurai (military gentry) family of Motoyama in Kumamoto a son, named Hikoichi. In time he was graduated from Keio University, became successively a government official, financial manager of a newspaper, director of reclamation projects. At 36 he took over a struggling political daily in Osaka, "Pittsburgh of Japan." Renaming it Mainichi (Every Day), he banished partisanship, began introducing the brisk interest of Western journalism. Japanese liked it so well that he was soon able to buy control of Tokyo's Nichi-Nichi (Day by Day). Last week, with his newspapers grown to a circulation of some 4,000.000 and himself a dean of journalism such as few nations can point to, apoplexy struck Hikoichi Motoyama dead.

Mainichi, Nichi-Nichi and their Asahi (Morning Sun) rivals are smaller than Metropolitan U. S. dailies, contain less advertising. Otherwise, due largely to Publisher Motoyama's pioneering, there is little essential difference. Even Mutt & Jeff, Min & Andy Gump, Smitty, Jiggs & Maggie hurl pots and tongue-lash each other in Japanese. One printing handicap the Japanese have been unable to overcome--lack of a simplified alphabet. Ideographs necessitate much handwork. A picturesque oldtime method of news transportation still lives in Japan. Newshawks and photographers in the field often send back copy and film by carrier pigeon. Besides morning & evening editions of Mainichi and Nichi-Nichi in Japanese, Motoyama published a daily Mainichi in English, made it the largest newspaper in that language East of Suez. Other Motoyama publications: a Sunday Mainichi, a weekly Braille Mainichi for the blind, the bi-monthly Economist, the monthly Cine-education, the Mainichi Year Book and Japan Today & Tomorrow, a glorified Chamber of Commerce brochure in English.

Famed was he for large-scale philanthropies: free medical service to indigent thousands, a hospital ship plying Japan's Inland Sea, a Better Farming Society. He was an ardent archeologist, a connoisseur of native art. For his services to journalism and public welfare, the Emperor made him a peer, gave him the Second Order of Merit.

No Hearst, Publisher Motoyama was a worker for international harmony, a liberal and independent patriot. He opposed the attack on Shanghai, upheld the occupation of Manchuria.

Guiding policies, occasionally writing editorials. Motoyama was chiefly interested in the financial and business direction of his newspapers. His handsome, patrician, heavily-lined face, kindly and visionary, was in evidence at his Osaka office until the end. Though his mind and heart roamed the earth, he stayed always in the Far East. Said he: "I am too old to see the world, so I see it through the eyes of my young men, who go everywhere."

Mainichi, Nichi-Nichi and Asahi long dominated the Tokyo and Osaka fields. In 1930 a potential rival, Hochi (News), passed into the hands of the man whom Motoyama's death left sitting on Japan's journalistic throne. He is Seiji Noma, "The Magazine King." A big round-faced man with a big ragged mustache. Publisher Noma likes to call himself and be called "The King." He named one of his magazines King. He gives presents, such as scarves, with King stamped all over. Validating the title is the combined circulation of his nine magazines--more than 5,000,000.

Japanese are almost 100% literate. One in five reads a Noma magazine. Printed cheaply on thin paper, these magazines were the first to appeal to Japan's masses, contain a shrewd mixture of entertainment, information and morality. "The King's" slogan for them all is "highly entertaining and doing a lot of good."

A versatile tycoon, "King" Noma makes his magazines sell many a bottle of his "Durikono," health beverage, and "Pamile," eye lotion.

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