Junichi Ueno

Who was Junichi Ueno?

Junichi Ueno was the co-owner of the Asahi Shimbun.

This powerful Japanese journalist owned and published a newspaper which is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. During the years of his ownership, Asahi's circulation rose to approximately 8.27 million for its morning edition and 3.85 million for its evening edition. Ueno represented the third generation of the family who owned the newspaper and its subsidiary businesses, which included television and satellite broadcasting.

After graduating from Kyoto University with a degree in economics, he joined the newspaper in 1937. He held several posts at Asahi and served as a member of its executive board during World War II. After Japan's defeat in 1945, he resigned from Asahi along with several other executives who took responsibility for Asahi's one-sided reporting during the war.

He then briefly worked as an elementary school teacher and later took a position at the Kobe University of Commerce. After that, he served as secretary to Kotaro Tanaka, who was then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.

In 1952, Ueno returned to the family business to head of Asahi's newly established employee training center. He inherited ownership of the media conglomerate in 1970 when his father died, and was a board member until 1994.