73 The Asahi Shimbun was founded in 1879 as a small publication, but quickly rose in prominence as a source of news and literature. Initially, the company produced two newspapers under separate urban corporate structures, one in Osaka and the other in Tokyo. In 1908 the two companies merged to form a single entity. Today, the paper is typically considered a left-leaning publication, although that characterization hasn’t always been the case. The daily circulation as of September 2014, according to the aforementioned Japan Audit Board of Circulations, was 7,210,000. Asahi was instrumental in the formation of the Koshien National High School Baseball tournaments, held annually in the Spring and Summer, and in the building of Koshien Stadium in the early-20th century. This aspect of their history is particularly relevant to the first case study in this research. Asahi produces one of Japan’s most successful daily sports tabloid, Nikkan Sports, a strong competitor of Yomiuri’s Sports Hochi publication. In addition to the newspaper, Asahi’s parent corporation has significant interest in the broadcasting business. Among its most prominent holdings are TV Asahi, the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, and the All Nippon News Network, not to mention a number of Internet endeavors (http://www.asahi.com/shimbun/company/outline/history.html). There are a number of other very competitive newspapers publishing in Japan, including the Mainichi Shimbun (3,300,000 daily circulation), the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (2,770,000), and the Sankei Shimbun (1,600,000). Each of these newspapers ranks among the highest read daily newspapers in the world, and individually hold a number of media properties beyond their news division. To some degree, each of these companies also .