Newspapers: Japanese Air Force

The Japanese plane nosed through heavy rain toward the black waters of the Sea of Japan, leveled off at 300 ft. and closed in on the broad deck and square bridge of the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise. Pilot Satoru Kumon tensed as A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers rose from the flattop to meet him. But he plunged ahead to circle the carrier and position one of his two companions for sure, close shots of the huge ship. Then, unharmed, the three Japanese fled toward their home base on Kyushu.

No World War II exploit, the flight was instead the latest example of the effectiveness of the private air force owned and operated by Japanese newspapers. Pilot Kumon flies full time for Asahi, Japan’s largest daily (circ. 5,350,000), and his flight last week brought the world its first news, complete with pictures, of the U.S. Navy’s massive move to protect electronic spy missions off Korea. His crewman’s photographs of the U.S. carrier gave Asahi a brief edge in Japan’s intense press rivalry, but some ten other press planes, including those of the rival dailies Yomiuri, Mainichi and Sankei, also patrolled the sea last week for pictures and news breaks. In all, Japanese newspapers now own and operate more than 30 planes, from Beechcraft Twin-Bonanzas to Piper Super Cubs and helicopters.*

Process In Flight. Almost daily, the planes hurdle Japan’s clogged highways to cover fires, floods, shipping accidents and other news events and still return in time to meet competitive deadlines. “They are as indispensable as the walkie-talkie and the reporter’s pencil,” claims Shiro Hara, managing editor of Yomiuri. Many of the aircraft are equipped to process film in flight, then transmit it to newspaper offices via mobile radiophoto equipment. When a disaster breaks, speed is so important that most of the papers’ airport mechanics are also trained to fill in as photographers. The dailies even use vacant lots near their offices as sites on which to drop negatives from helicopters when time permits. Asahi spends $694,000 a year on its air fleet, including the salaries of twelve pilots, 21 maintenance personnel and 30 other aides. “The greater the competition, the more planes we simply have to have,” explains one Asahi official.

Japan’s gadget-minded, scoop-chasing editors are convinced it all pays off. Mainichi’s newsmen still gloat about a photo they got of the Rising Sun replacing the Stars and Stripes over Iwo Jima last summer, even though the ceremony marking the return of Japanese sovereignty ended just 15 minutes before the paper’s evening deadline. As the ceremony ended, a Beechcraft took off from Iwo Jima, 775 miles south of Tokyo, and negatives were processed aboard. Another plane sped toward Iwo, received the photos by radio when the planes were 250 miles apart, then turned toward Hachijo Jima, 175 miles south of Tokyo. While still in the air, the second plane radioed the pictures to a ground station at Hachijo, which then transmitted them to Tokyo by undersea cable. No other evening paper pictured that historic event.

Some U.S. newspapers own aircraft, but none has so many or uses them so regularly in news gathering as the largest Japanese dailies. Yomiuri’s Hara has a point when he needles the major use of company planes by U.S. publishers. “We never fly executives—only reporters and photographers,” he says.

* Asahi has nine aircraft, Yomiuri eight, Mainichi seven, Chunichi five, Sankei two.