1876-1944 The Birth of Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Shueisha, the predecessor of DNP, was founded in the Ginza district of Tokyo in 1876, shortly after Japan's Meiji Restoration. The impetus for its establishment came from the founders' passionate desire to help raise the level of people's knowledge and culture through letterpress printing.
Shueisha's first major job was the printing of a revised Japanese translation of Samuel Smiles' “Self-Help,” which became a best seller and imparted courage to young Japanese. It was the first Western-style book made entirely in Japan, with Shuseisha even developing the paperboard used for the cover.
In 1886, Shueisha built a factory in Tokyo's Ichigaya district. In 1923, after the Great Kanto Earthquake, the Company's head office functions were consolidated in Ichigaya. In the late 1920s, the introduction of low-priced collections of literary works led to the "one-yen book boom." After it ran its course, Japan's printing industry faced hard times. In 1935, Shueisha made a fresh start by merging with Nisshin Printing Co., Ltd. to form Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.