The Kobe Shimbun's publisher told regulators its finances kept eroding through the six months to May 2026, with group sales down 2.5% to ¥17.55bn and net profit attributable to the parent down 11.9% to ¥711.1mn, the second straight year of falling revenue and profit for the 12-company group.
On May 1, 2026 the company cut its capital stock by 83.3%, from ¥600mn to ¥100mn, moving the difference into capital surplus. The company says the reduction was made to increase the flexibility and mobility of its future capital policy. A separate note in the filing states that the cut also ended the company's exposure to Japan's size-based enterprise tax, which applies to companies with capital above ¥100mn, once capital fell to that level.
The production side is shrinking too. Kobe Shimbun is consolidating three prefectural printing plants into two by November 2026 to cut fixed costs, and its board voted on March 5, 2026 to close its production center by the end of May 2027. The company already booked a ¥29.2mn impairment on that center's buildings and machinery this half, tied directly to the closure decision.
The pressure explaining the moves is on both the print and digital sides. National newspaper circulation fell 6.4% year-on-year to 21.16 million copies in May 2026, and Kobe Shimbun's own morning edition dropped below 300,000 copies in June 2026, according to figures the company cites from the Japan ABC Association. Digital revenue fared no better: the company says a rapid rise in generative AI use cut web traffic to sites including Daily Sports, shrinking its digital income to under 90% of the prior year's level.
Management's response beyond cost-cutting is a set of new ventures it calls "Accel Business," pitched as growth lines meant to build a financial base sturdy enough to keep funding the newsroom. The filing gives no revenue targets or launch dates for those businesses, leaving the plant consolidation and capital cut as the concrete steps investors can measure so far.