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The story
On October 30, Mainichi Shimbun Co. announced that it will cease publication of “Sunday Mainichi” with the May 9 issue, going on sale April 27 next year. The magazine is one of Japan’s oldest general-interest weeklies, also known for its education-related side as the annual publisher of rankings showing how many students from each high school got into university. Its sister publication, Weekly Asahi, already ceased publication last year, continuing a broader decline of general-interest weekly magazines. On 5ch, many commenters pointed to changes in how magazines are sold — “convenience stores don’t even have a magazine rack anymore,” “about the only ones you still see are Bunshun, Shincho, and Gendai” — with reactions split between mourning the closure and shrugging it off as a sign of the times.
Asahi Shimbun
October 30, 2026, 5:00 AM
Mainichi Shimbun Co. announced on the 30th that it will cease publication of “Sunday Mainichi,” one of Japan’s oldest general-interest weekly magazines, with the May 9 issue, going on sale April 27 next year. The news was reported in the Mainichi Shimbun’s morning edition dated the 30th.
Source: asahi.com / Original article here
What people said
Asahi's version shut down three years ago.
Wish those would hurry up and go too.
They're not disappearing as long as people are still making threads about them here lol.
And I haven't even claimed the "Haiku King" title yet (a running haiku contest feature in the magazine).
It's fun, kind of like following which schools make it to Koshien (Japan's national high school baseball tournament).
These days convenience stores only carry Bunshun, Shincho, Post, and Gendai.
I used to see it at my grandpa's place back in the day.
I used to always read Midori Nakano's year-end book, but it didn't come out last year.
Wonder if she's okay…
Didn't know that.
Magazines are truly becoming unnecessary at this point.
A lot of convenience stores have gotten rid of their magazine racks entirely too.
No — lost to the times.
You'd get a phone call at home the same day the results came out.
If your name never made the list, that's confirmed proof you went to a lesser school.
Disappointing to see someone so "highly educated" posting this kind of thing on 5ch.
Apparently the main Mainichi Shimbun paper itself can keep going for another 15 years or so, even at a reduced scale.
Though the content's starting to read like a fan-made zine at this point.
No way, seriously?
Does that mean the shogi Meijin title match disappears too?
These days the only weekly magazines you ever see are Bunshun, Shincho, and Gendai.
These days he's only doing interview dialogues.
Yeah, it ended last year. I saw the final issue — it felt completely half-hearted. It was basically just university entrance results broken down by high school.
There was a period when they put guys on the cover — probably didn't want people buying it even back then.
More like print media itself got too dumb and started running biased reporting.
Background and Talking Points
Sunday Mainichi was a general-interest weekly best known for its education-related data — specifically its rankings of university admissions by high school — and its sister publication, Weekly Asahi, had already ceased publication the year before. The major weeklies that remain, such as Bunshun, Shincho, and Gendai, are centered mainly on entertainment and political scandal coverage, and general-interest weeklies built around “reading through data,” like Sunday Mainichi, have all but disappeared. Opinions in the thread split between those who saw the closure as a result of information moving online and those who blamed it on the magazine’s own content growing thinner, with neither side offering conclusive evidence. Some comments also treated having one’s name appear in the admissions ranking as a marker of educational pedigree, but it’s worth noting — since many readers misunderstand this — that the ranking was never exclusive to this magazine; it has long been published by the Asahi Shimbun and various web outlets as well. The shrinking of convenience store magazine racks, a purely physical shift in distribution, was also repeatedly cited as part of the backdrop to the closure.
*This article is composed of excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread ““Sunday Mainichi” to Cease Publication Next Spring — One of Japan’s Oldest General-Interest Weeklies.”
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