was a Japanese monthly photographic magazine,While "Asahi" was consistently written in kanji (viz. ) for the newspaper title, the titles of most of the publisher's other periodicals and imprints, and the publisher's name itself, the Japanese title of Asahi Camera was consistently in katakana. published from April 1926 until July 2020, when publication was suspended because of a sharp fall in advertising spending during the COVID-19 pandemic.『アサヒカメラ』休刊のお知らせ (Notice of suspension of Asahi Camera), Asahi Shimbun Publications, 1 June 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2026
History and profile The first issue was that for April 1926.During the twentieth century, Japanese monthly magazines routinely came out in the month before the cover date, or even the month before that. It was from the outset published by Asahi Shimbun-sha, publisher of the newspaper The Asahi Shimbun. The headquarters was in Tokyo.
From the January 1941 issue, it merged with the magazines Geijutsu Shashin Kenkyū (, "Technique Photograph Studies") and Shōzō Shashin Kenkyū (, "Portrait Photograph Studies"). Publication was suspended with the April 1942 issue.
Publication resumed after the Second World War with the October 1949 issue. Its cover employed a monochrome portrait of a girl by Ihei Kimura, who would become a major contributor.
+For much of the period 1962–85, the job of photographing the cover was given to a single photographer for four or more consecutive months."Hyōshi ni miru Asahi Kamera no rekishi" (, "The history of Asahi Camera as seen in its covers"), Asahi Camera, April 2006, pp. 233–44. Year Months Photographer 1962 Jan–Dec Kichisaburō Anzai 1963 Jan–Dec Masaaki Imamura1964 Jan–Apr Noriaki Yokosuka May–Aug Naoya Sugiki Sep–Dec Hiroki Hayashi 1965 Jan–Apr Hideki Fujii May–Aug Hiroshi Nagaoka Sep–Dec Toshio Tateishi 1966 Jan–Apr Masaaki Nishimiya May–Aug Shigeji Asano Sep–Dec Kazumi Kurigami 1967–8 not applicable 1969 Jan–Dec Kazumi Kurigami 1970 Jan–Dec Daidō Moriyama 1971 Jan–Dec Umihiko Konishi 1972 Jan–Dec Kishin Shinoyama 1973 Jan–Dec Yutaka Takanashi 1974 Jan–Dec Akira Satō 1975 Jan–Dec Hajime Sawatari 1976 Jan–Dec Shin Yanagisawa 1977 Jan–Dec Shunji Ōkura 1978 not applicable 1979 Jan–Dec Akira Satō 1980 Jan–Dec Takamasa Inamura 1981 Jan–Dec Kōichi Inakoshi 1982 Jan–Jun Bishin Jūmonji Jul–Dec Noriaki Yokosuka 1983 Jan–Dec Hajime Sawatari 1984 not applicable 1985 Jan–Dec Hajime Sawatari
Asahi Camera attempted to satisfy interests in all areas of photography, with short portfolios in monochrome and color by established and new photographers (most but not all of them Japanese), contests for readers, articles about technique, and (accounting for much of the magazine's bulk) news and tests of equipment. The April 2006 issue, for example, had over four hundred pages (many of them advertising, but the great majority editorial) with five or more pages devoted to work by each of ten photographers, the announcement of the latest Kimura Ihei Award, articles about equipment (new, old and even future), contests, and much else.
Even if one considers only its uninterrupted years of publication, from 1949, Asahi Camera was the oldest surviving Japanese photography magazine. Like any magazine that attempts to satisfy people with very different interests, it was sometimes criticized for not serving any of them particularly well, but its equipment reviews appeared to be as rigorous as any and it continued to attract some of the best photographers for its portfolios. Like many photographic magazines, many of its covers somehow happened to show conventionally attractive young women (sometimes nude), and the overall impression it gave was unadventurous, but daring was a rare commodity in the Japanese magazine market and Asahi Camera did display work that cannot be regarded as at all commercial.
Since the demise of Camera Mainichi in 1985, the only rival as a magazine attempting to cater for all photographic interests became Nippon Camera.
From its 1926 start until around 1932, in addition to the katakana title, the magazine was prominently titled in English, Asahi Camera: The Japanese Journal of Photography. A shortened version, Asahi Camera, continued as an alternative title until late in the twentieth century but then was written "ASAHICAMERA".
Internationally
Asahi Camera was also published in the US around the late 2000s. It was possibly retired in 2020.
Notes
External links Publisher's site Dealer's description