Wheeling Sunday Register

The New Japanese Press Regulations.

London Times.

A new law for regulating the press has been issued by the Japanese government, and is to continue in force for six months only. It provides that the names and ages of editor, publisher and printers shall be furnished with every written publication for permission to publish a newspaper; that the applicants must be over 20 years of age, Japanese subjects, and shall never have been deprived of their civic rights; that the editor and printer must be different persons, and must deposit as caution money a sum of between £200 and £700, unless the paper is to be devoted wholly to science, art, statistics or current market prices.

If any person sends a denial or contradiction of any statement that has appeared in the paper the editor must insert it in extenso, in the same type as the original statement, and at the head of the same column as that in which the latter appeared. But if the denial is more than twice as long as the original statement, the extra matter may be charged for as an advertisement. The exceptions to this rule are when the wording of the denial is offensive, or if the denial itself is anonymous.

No newspaper is to publish an article defending an offence against the law, even though the law is confessedly bad. No official documents of any kind may be published, or even alluded to, without the consent of the department concerned. The home minister may suspend, prohibit, or confiscate a newspaper if its tone be judged to be detrimental to the public peace, or injurious to the public peace, or existing customs, however open to attack these customs may be. Very heavy penalties are attached to breaches of these regulations, which are, however, described as much more lenient than those previously in force.