To many Japanese observers it seemed that the restoration of 1867 had merely transferred the administrative authority from the Tokugawa Shogun to the clans of Satsuma and Choshu. The _Koko Shimbun_ severely attacked the two clans as specious usurpers. It was not in the mood of Japanese officialdom at that time to brook such assaults. The _Koko Shimbun_ was suppressed; Fukuchi was thrust into prison, and all journals or periodicals except those having official sanction were vetoed. At the beginning of 1868 only two newspapers remained in the field. Very soon, however, the enlightened makers of modern Japan appreciated the importance of journalism, and in 1871 the _Shimbun Zasshi (News Periodical)_ was started under the auspices of the illustrious Kido. Shortly afterwards there appeared in Yokohama--whence it was subsequently transferred to Tokyo--the _Mainichi Shimbun (Daily News)_, the first veritable daily and also the first journal printed with movable types and foreign presses. Its editors were Numa Morikage, Shimada Saburo and Koizuka Ryu, all destined to become celebrated not only in the field of journalism but also in that of politics. It has often been said of the Japanese that they are slow in forming a decision but very quick to act upon it. This was illustrated in the case of journalism. In 1870 the country possessed only two quasi-journals, both under official auspices. In 1875 it possessed over 100 periodicals and daily newspapers. The most conspicuous were the _Nichi Nichi Shimbun (Daily News)_, the _Yubin Hochi (Postal Intelligence)_, the _Choya Shimbun (Government and People News)_, the _Akebono Shimbun (The Dawn)_, and the _Mainichi Shimbun (Daily News)_. These were called "the five great journals." The _Nichi Nichi Shimbun_ had an editor of conspicuous literary ability in Fukuchi Genichiro, and the _Hochi Shimbun_, its chief rival, received assistance from such men as Yano Fumio, Fujita Makichi, Inukai Ki and Minoura Katsundo. Japan had not yet any political parties, but the ferment that preceded their birth was abroad. The newspaper press being almost entirely in the hands of men whose interests suggested wider opening of the door to official preferment, nearly all editorial pens were directed against the government. So strenuous did this campaign become that, in 1875, a press law was enacted empowering the minister of home affairs and the police to suspend or suppress a journal and to fine or imprison its editor without public trial. Many suffered under this law, but the ultimate effect was to invest the press with new popularity, and very soon the newspapers conceived a device which effectually protected their literary staff, for they employed "dummy editors" whose sole function was to go to prison in lieu of the true editor.