WW2 Japan, Shashin Shuho , a pictorial journal published by the Cabinet Intelligence Department,

Shashin Shuho is a weekly pictorial journal that was published by the Cabinet Intelligence Department, the predecessor of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau. A total of 370 issues of Shashin Shuho were published, ranging from the first issue published on February 16, 1938, to the final issue, No. 374/375, published on July 11, 1945. (At the Center, you can browse the image materials for 351 of the 370 issues of Shashin Shuho. The 351 viewable issues are all kept at the National Archives of Japan, ranging from the very first issue to issue No. 352 published on December 20, 1944.)

Shashin Shuho was sold at a price of ten sen [one tenth of the current yen] per copy (while a bowl of the soba noodles cost 15 sen in 1940). People could buy copies at government journal shops, bookstores, and train station stands across the country. About 200,000 copies of the journal were published as of March 1941. In contrast, Asahi Graph, the most widely circulated pictorial magazine in Japan at that time, was said to have only reached tens of thousands of copies. Thus, it is little exaggeration to say that Shashin Shuho enjoyed the largest circulation of any publication in the Far East (Intelligence Bureau’s Organization and Function 1941 May, Reference code: A06031104700, the 34th image). The circulation of the journal continued to grow, and as of April 1942 (issue No. 214 of Shashin Shuho) approximately 300,000 copies were published.