Domei News Agency Headquarters (Shisei Kaikan)

The Domei News Agency (同盟通信社, Dōmei Tsūshinsha, literally "Federated News Agency") was established on January 1, 1936, through the merger of Rengo News Agency (新聞聯合社) and the news department of Dentsu (日本電報通信社). The creation of Domei represented the culmination of years of effort by Japanese journalists, business leaders, and government officials to establish a national news agency capable of competing with Reuters, Associated Press, and other major international wire services on a global scale.

From its headquarters in Tokyo, Domei rapidly expanded into a massive information apparatus. By 1945, the agency maintained six regional offices and 62 domestic bureaus within Japan, three regional offices and 23 bureaus in China (headquartered in Nanjing), and seven regional offices and 23 bureaus across Southeast Asia (based in Singapore). Its combined workforce numbered approximately 5,500 employees, including journalists, translators, radio operators, and technical staff.

During the war years, Domei came under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Communications (逓信省) and the Cabinet Information Bureau (内閣情報局). The agency served multiple functions: it collected and distributed domestic news to all Japanese newspapers and broadcasters, produced government-approved foreign-language broadcasts via shortwave radio in multiple languages, collated and analyzed intelligence for government offices and the armed forces, and conducted propaganda activities directed at both domestic and international audiences. Domei's monopoly over news distribution made it an indispensable tool of the wartime state's information control apparatus.

On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito's "Gyokuon-hōsō" (玉音放送, Jewel Voice Broadcast) — the Imperial Rescript announcing Japan's surrender — was broadcast at noon by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), then the country's only broadcaster, rather than by Domei, whose role was that of a wire service supplying news to newspapers and broadcasters. The broadcast marked the effective end of the Pacific War.

Following Japan's surrender, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP/GHQ) ordered Domei to halt its overseas foreign-language service, and amid occupation policy against news monopolies the agency resolved to dissolve itself (the dissolution is also often described as having been ordered by GHQ). It ceased operations on October 31, 1945. The very next day, November 1, 1945, two successor organizations were established: Kyodo News (共同通信社), a nonprofit cooperative taking over general news reporting, and Jiji Press (時事通信社), a commercial entity handling economic and financial news. Domei's headquarters from January 1942 was the Shisei Kaikan (市政会館) in Hibiya Park, Chiyoda Ward, a 1929 building that still stands. Kyodo News remained there until March 1966, when it moved to its newly built Kyodo Tsushin Kaikan (共同通信会館) in Toranomon, Minato Ward; that building, vacated by Kyodo's main operations in 2003, has since been included in the redevelopment of the Toranomon 2-chōme district.