The Proprietors Assert Themselves: The Osaka Asahi Shinbun and the Osaka Mainichi Shinbun in the late Nineteenth Century

The initial capital for the Asahi shinbun came from a prosperous sake brewer and wholesaler of western consumer goods, Kimura Heihachi, who established the paper for his prodigal son, Noboru. Shortly before the Restoration of 1868, Kimura had moved to Osaka where he opened a brewery. Kimura senior had gone into partnership with another wholesaler of such goods, Murayama Ryuhei, who together with Ueno Riichi became a proprietor of the paper in 1881. They put up ¥730,000 - the sum that Kimura Heihachi had already spent on the paper - Murayama ¥720,000 and Ueno ¥710,000, and the paper has remained a Murayama-Ueno property ever since.