, which began in 1872; the , which began in 1874; and the , which began in 1879. In the 1880s, government pressure led to a gradual weeding out of , and the started becoming more similar to the modern, "impartial" newspapers. Throughout their history, Japanese newspapers have had a central role in issues of free speech and freedom of the press. In the period of "Taishō Democracy" in the 1910s to the 1920s, the government worked to suppress newspapers such as the for their critical stance against government bureaucracy that favored protecting citizens' rights and constitutional democracy. In the period of growing militarism to the outbreak of total war in the 1930s to the 1940s, newspapers faced intense government censorship and control. After Japan's defeat, strict censorship of the press continued as the American occupiers used government control in order to inculcate democratic and anti-communist values. In 1951, the American occupiers finally returned freedom of the press to Japan, which is the situation today based on the Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan. Reproductions of Japanese newspapers Listed below is an overview of reproductions of the three major Japanese daily newspapers, the , the , and the . These historical newspapers are available in three major forms, as CD-ROMs, as microfilm, and as (, literally 'reduced-sized print editions'). is a technology popularized by in the 1930s as a way to compress and archive newspapers by reducing the size of the print to fit multiple pages of a daily newspaper onto one page. are geared towards libraries and archives, and are usually organized and released by month. These resources are available at many leading research universities throughout the world (usually universities with reputable Japanese studies programs). One will need to check each individual library's collection for information about the availability of these sources. WorldCat is a good starting point. Yomiuri shinbun In 1999, the released a CD-ROM titled The in the Meiji Era, which provides a searchable index of news articles and images from the period. Subsequent CD-ROMs, The Taisho Era, The Prewar Showa Era I and The Prewar Showa Era II, were completed eight years after the project was first conceived. Postwar Recovery, the first part of a postwar Showa Era series that includes newspaper stories and images until 1960, is forthcoming. Issues of printed since 1998 are also available as an online resource through Lexis-Nexis Academic. Asahi