‘Ritokei’ is Japan’s well-designed island newspaper connecting remote communities
Since 2010, the newspaper has been giving voice to the inhabitants of Japan’s remote islands. We meet its editor in chief to find out how its helping to unite disparate communities.
“What is the purpose of media?” asks Atsuko Isamoto, the 43-year-old editor in chief of Rito Keizai Shimbun (Ritokei). “There are editors who want to make a cool magazine or deliver something interesting to society but, for me, media is ultimately about the world that you want to shape.”
Isamoto – who is from Hita, a landlocked hot-spring town in Japan’s Oita prefecture – launched her remote-island media company in 2010. When we meet, she has just returned from the Izu archipelago and is preparing to visit Osaki Kamijima in Hiroshima prefecture. The latter, in the Seto Inland Sea, is one of Japan’s 14,125 remote islands (of which 417 are inhabited) and the place that inspired Isamoto to establish Ritokei.
“Japan’s identity is built on being an island nation,” she says. “There is incredible diversity: everywhere you look, there are different dialects, industries and climates. Remote islands present the most extreme cases of that diversity.”
Ritokei’s free quarterly newspaper was initially focused on these idiosyncrasies and their allure but Isamoto’s gaze soon turned to people’s everyday lives. For the past decade, every issue of the print edition has explored a single topic, from raising children on an island to the economics of sustaining life in such places, while navigating broader civic challenges, such as disaster resilience, preserving traditional culture and maintaining quality of life. The editorial team aims to present the publication’s 500,000 annual readers with a range of perspectives, rather than seeking out a single answer – giving island residents a platform to share their own experiences.
Design plays a key role. Tomohiro Okazaki, Ritokei’s art director, has shaped the paper’s identity since day one, from the signature logotype to the eye-catching cover graphics that render island motifs, such as lighthouses and sea bream, in vivid colours. It’s a visually striking approach that makes for a publication that demands a closer look, regardless of whether it’s found in an inner-city bookshop, a subtropical hotel suite or one of more than 1,300 stockists across Japan.
New opportunities have arisen since the company’s transition to nonprofit status in 2014, which was made possible by partnerships with villages and businesses that promote regional industry and products. It has enabled a supporter-based model: for as little as ¥1,000 (€5.39) a month, subscribers gain access to the entire back catalogue and receive three copies of every new publication – one for themselves and two to share – growing readership through first-hand, human interactions.
“Making a newspaper for all this time has come at a significant cost,” says Isamoto. “But having something physical has allowed us to forge real connections with people on about 170 inhabited remote islands.”
ritokei.com
Comment
A newspaper can be a potent form of communication. Ritokei demonstrates the importance of serving a geographically remote readership whose everyday concerns might otherwise be overlooked by the mainland media, while sharing their experiences to a wider audience.
