KYODO TSUSHINSHA

(Japanese: Cooperative News Agency) national news agency founded in November 1945 to replace the pre-World War II Domei tsushinsha (Federated News Agency), which had served as the official news service of the Japanese government since 1936. Despite competition from the beginning with the Jiji news agency, formed by Domei employees who did not join Kyodo, the latter gradually gained prestige among Japan's newspapers, in part by introducing technological innovations such as a teletype system for transmission of kanji (Japanese characters). By the 1980s the agency had representatives in major world cities, with some 110 subscribers in Japan, including radio and television stations as well as newspapers.