Joseph Heco and the Origin of Japanese Journalism

Joseph Heco, with the original Japanese name of Hamada Hikozo, played an active role in the diplomatic, economic, trade, and cultural interactions between the United States and Japan in the 1850s and 1860s. Being rescued from a shipwreck by an American freighter and taken to San Francisco in the 1850s, Heco had the chance to experience the advanced industrial civilization. After returning to Japan, he followed the example of the U.S. newspapers to start the first Japanese newspaper Kaigai Shimbun (Overseas News), introducing Western ideas into Japan and enabling Japanese people under the rule of the Edo bakufu/shogunate to learn about the great changes taking place outside the island. In the light of the historical background of the United States forcing Japan to open up, this paper expounds on Joseph Heco’s life experience and Kaigai Shimbun, the newspaper he founded, aiming to explain how Heco, as the “father of Japanese journalism”, promoted the development of Japanese newspaper industry.