View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
April 10, 2003updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Epic Japanese walk for King

By Press Gazette

British journalist Mary King and a Japanese journalist have made a 7,500 kilometres “roving reporter” walk through Japan, selling newspaper and magazine articles on the way.

The result has been a book, Japan on Foot: Tales of the Unexpected, by King and Etsuko Shimabukuro, to be published later this year by Alexandra Press. The pair also maintained a website in Japanese and English during the 16-month continuous footslog.

King, who moved to Japan in 1988, started her career as a 16-year-old cub reporter on the former Dudley Herald in the West Midlands. She later became a photographer with the Derbyshire Times and the Wokingham & Bracknell Times. She then moved to London, where she worked as a reporter with London Newspaper Group and did shifts for the nationals, including The Observer, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, London Evening Standard, News of the World, Daily Star and Today.

In Japan, she has worked for the Japan Times, the Daily Yomiuri and the Asahi Evening News. She is now a freelance, based in Tokyo. In May, she will take up one-year’s Zen studies at a temple, and work on a second book, tentatively called Japan on Bum.

Part of the profits of the first book will be donated to HELP shelter in Tokyo, a refuge for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

Orders for Japan on Foot: Tales of the Unexpected can now be placed online through Alexandra Press at its website, www.alexandrapress.com.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network