For sharing Japanese art and culture
Cultural News started in 1998 by a Japan-born former news reporter
Shige Higashi is the publisher and editor of English language monthly newspaper Cultural News in Los Angeles.
He was an activist of peace movement in Vietnam War era and slow life style movement in 1970’s in Hiroshima when he was a student of Hiroshima Shudo University in English major.
He was one of founding members of the slow life style center Tezukuri Kaikan in Hiroshima city in 1974.
After three years working experiences at the construction trade newspaper in Osaka area, Higashi moved to Los Angeles in 1981 at the age of 27.
He started to work as news reporter at local Japanese language daily newspaper Kashu Mainichi in Los Angeles, then went to San Francisco to work for the local Japanese daily Nichi Bei Times.
In 1983, he returned to Los Angeles to work with Asahi Shimbun as an assistant to the Los Angeles correspondent until 1986.
In 1992, Higashi resumed his works at the media industry as business manager of Kyodo News California, Inc. (later Kyodo News International, a subsidiary of Kyodo News) in Los Angeles which distributed Japan-based Kyodo’s news contents to the world market.
In July 1998, he started alone to publish monthly English tabloid Cultural News to bridge the gap between Japanese-speaking community and the mainstream society in Los Angeles.
Through try-and-error period of the first year, he realized that the traditional Japanese culture which are usually overlooked by ordinary Japanese people, was the best attraction for the mainstream people in Los Angeles.
Cultural News became the only comprehensive source of traditional Japanese cultural events in Southern California.
In February 2006, Higashi received a compliment letter form then Japanese
Ambassador to the USA Ryozo Kato on the editorial integration of Cultural News.
Since April 2006, Higashi and Cultural News has been depicted at a half page article in Japan’s junior high school history textbook which is published for near half million every year. The feature article of Tokyo Shoseki Publishing Company is scheduled to continue to print in 2010 and 2011 editions.
Since 2000, Shige Higashi has been appointed as Kure City Ambassador by the mayor of Kure where is Higashi’s hometown.
Since July 2009, Higashi started to email a single subject newsletter dubbed as CNOnline Daily everyday to over 1,500 subscribers.
Los Angeles has the largest expatriate colony of Japanese citizens in the world. Those dense Japanese network enable people in Los Angeles to access wider range of traditional Japanese culture which are usually not available for people in current Japan’s local cities.
Many Japanese people from Japan would experience traditional Japanese culture in Los Angeles for their first time.
Cultural News, Inc. was organized by Shige Higashi in order to continue to publish monthly Cultural News with $8,000 seed money from supporters of the paper in June 2002 after Higashi last a bread and meat and job at travel industry because of 9/11 disaster in 2001.
Cultural News, Inc. is actually located at Higashi’s apartment room:
328 1/4 South Alexandria Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90020, USA
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 48678, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
Phone: +1 (213) 819-4100 Fax: +1 (213) 388-8428
higashi@culturalnews.com Skype: publisher999