Mainichi apologizes for using articles without permission

In the printed and online editions of the Mainichi Shimbun on July 20, the Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd. released the results of its investigations into the WaiWai column (shut down in June) of the Mainichi Daily News. In the column, articles were used without the consent of their publishers -- including publishing and newspaper companies. Our follow-up investigation has found that we used and translated articles published by 32 publishing and newspaper companies without their permission.

We allowed another publisher to run some of these WaiWai articles in publications it printed, and received fees for the reprint. We are now in the process of repaying these reprint fees.

We are continuing to apologize to the publishers for violating their copyrights.

The defunct printed edition of the Mainichi Daily News, which was published before the Mainichi Daily News became an online newspaper, also used and translated articles from other publications without permission from their copyright holders between October 1989 and March 2001. We are continuing to offer explanations and apologies to the publishers of these articles.

We regret, and apologize to readers, for our failure to provide thorough instructions to promote awareness on copyright issues and will step up our efforts to educate management and employees about these matters.

The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd.