Akagi Shinbun

The Akagi Shinbun (赤城新聞, "Red Castle Newspaper") is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Yamatai, and is one of the four largest newspapers in Yamatai. With over 16.5 million readers in 2016, Akagi Shinbun currently has the largest circulation in the world and the largest in Yamatai, though its digital size trails behind many of the global newspapers. The Akagi Shinbun Corporation is a media conglomerate headquartered in Satsuma City, and there are also large secondary corporate headquarters in Heian, Niihama, and Okayama. It is a privately held family business with ownership and control remaining with the founding Kishimoto family.

A 2020 survey of 15 media outlets found that 63% of Yamataian respondents trusted reporting from Akagi Shinbun, which was the third highest rating behind YaHoKyo News and the Rengo Shinbun.

Government interference
The newspaper is sometimes referred to as a mouthpiece of the Yamatai Restoration Party, and is considered to be close to the YRP and the Yamataian government. During the brief period of DPY rule, the Akagi Shinbun became highly critical of the government.

Most of the editors have been claimed to be groomed as pro-government supporters and are careful to ensure that reporting of local events adheres closely to the official line, and many major personnel within the newspaper have long-standing close ties to important figures in the YRP leadership as well as high-ranking government officials.

Former editor-in chief Yoshino Shoji claimed that since the Okabe era, there has been a government-appointed "observer" at the newspaper, who ensured that the newsroom was within control, and that disapproval of this "observer" could cost a reporter or editor their job. Editors were bound by out of bounds markers to denote what topics are permissible for public discussion, resulting in self-censorship.