Bungeishunjū

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.

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:

• BungeishunjÅ« (文藝春秋) (published monthly)
• All Yomimono (オール讀物, ÅŒru Yomimono) (published monthly)
• ShÅ«kan Bunshun (週刊文春) (published weekly)
• Bungakukai (文學界) (monthly literary issue)
• Crea (クレア) (women's quality)
• Shokun (諸君!) (op-ed magazine)
• Title (タイトル)
• Number (ナンバー)

§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.

§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.'"

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.

§Contributors and editors

• Masahiko Katsuya (勝谷誠彦)
• Takashi Tachibana (立花隆)

§References

§External links

• Official site (Japanese)