# The Asahi Shimbun

> The Asahi Shimbun is a news source in the TOLD catalogue, based in Japan. TOLD classifies its editorial position as **Lean left**.

- **Domain:** asahi.com
- **Website:** https://www.asahi.com/ajw/
- **Country:** Japan
- **Region:** Asia
- **Language:** Japanese (primary); Asia & Japan Watch English edition
- **Editorial position on TOLD:** Lean left
- **Founded:** 1879

## About

The Asahi Shimbun operates as one of Japan's two largest national newspapers and the country's most influential liberal voice, with daily coverage of domestic politics, foreign affairs, science and culture for a national readership of millions. The pace is broadsheet-measured and the register sober-progressive, with editorials that have generally pushed back against constitutional revision, military expansion and conservative reframings of wartime history. Its scale and editorial line make it Japan's principal counterweight to Yomiuri.

## Profile

- **Ownership:** Privately owned; published by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- **Funding:** Subscription, advertising and digital revenue
- **Focus areas:** Japanese politics, foreign affairs, security, science, culture, history; major national broadsheet with English edition


## What the position means

TOLD classifies what an outlet publishes over time, based on ownership, funding
and focus. It describes a pattern; it is not a rating of quality and not a
ranking. Nothing in TOLD sorts, hides or promotes a source by its position.
State-aligned and partisan outlets are in the catalogue on purpose, labelled.

## Assessment note

Latest assessment: 2026-05-08. Generated with TOLD Source Prompt Brief v1.2.7. TOLD summarizes framing patterns and third-party classifications; it does not assess factual accuracy, intent, or legitimacy. External classifications: 7 (3 themes).

Corrections: report@told.news

## This source on TOLD

- Profile page: https://told.news/news-sources/asahi.com
- Full catalogue: https://told.news/md/news-sources

## Other pages

- [How TOLD works](https://told.news/docs) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/docs)
- [Front page](https://told.news/) — [markdown](https://told.news/md)
- [News sources](https://told.news/news-sources) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/news-sources)
- [About](https://told.news/about) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/about)
- [AI transparency](https://told.news/ai) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/ai)
- [Cookies and data](https://told.news/cookies) — [markdown](https://told.news/md/cookies)
- [Agent overview](https://told.news/llms.txt) and [full reference incl. the whole source catalogue](https://told.news/llms-full.txt)
- [AGENTS.md](https://told.news/AGENTS.md) — how to read told.news programmatically
- [Sitemap](https://told.news/sitemap.xml)

Every page on told.news answers with markdown when the request carries
`Accept: text/markdown`.

---

TOLD news is operated by Gaerhenäs, Sweden. Contact: report@told.news