THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
October 14, 2025 at 18:12 JST
Alfasado Inc., a subsidiary of The Asahi Shimbun Co., has opened a website to make the newspaper’s coverage more accessible to readers who may find standard Japanese challenging.
The Yasashii Asahi Shimbun website, launched on Oct. 14, presents select Asahi Shimbun articles in “Yasashii Nihongo” (plain Japanese).
The website’s intent is to deliver news in simple, easy-to-understand Japanese to a broader audience. This readership is not limited to foreign nationals but also includes older adults, children and individuals with disabilities.
Alfasado founder Sumio Noda said he feels that media outlets have not done enough when it comes to how information is conveyed to diverse groups of people.
“As our society faces aging and population decline, we hope to explore through Yasashii Asahi Shimbun what the media can do to help us live together with those who have different backgrounds and needs,” said Noda, who now serves as director in charge of technology development.
Alfasado chooses articles from The Asahi Shimbun’s digital edition and rephrases them into Yasashii Nihongo for the website.
In addition to everyday news, the site will provide information during disasters and other emergencies.
Alfasado’s development of web accessibility-focused systems is designed to ensure online information can be used without difficulty, regardless of an individual’s background.
The company has also produced an automatic conversion system for Yasashii Nihongo.
Founded in 2003, the software company became an Asahi Shimbun subsidiary in January 2024. It is now working to improve web accessibility across the group.
Yasashii Asahi Shimbun can be accessed at (https://yasashii.asahi.com/)
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The homepage of the Yasashii Asahi Shimbun news site (The Asahi Shimbun)
