A one-year test agreement sees production of some copies of the ‘Wall Street Journal Asia’ printed digitally on TKS equipment in Osaka, Japan.

Previously all Japanese copies of the newspaper had been printed web-offset in Tokyo and sent by train or plane to the Osaka area, but publisher Dow Jones was keen to have more local production.

Under the new agreement, press maker TKS is printing the Osaka copies on a JetLeader 1500 inkjet web at its IGA Techno Centre.

Dow Jones operations senior vice president Joe Vincent sees the arrangement as an opportunity to get in important markets which were previously being serviced from a regional offset print centre: “Instead of having the product being delivered hours later, it will be delivered first thing in the morning,” he says.

“Content will be much more current and up to date and the cost will be significantly less.”

Vincent says this is the first time anywhere in the world a multisection newspaper is being produced on an inkjet press.

TKS chairman Kohei Shiba says his company is thrilled to have the opportunity to validate its new technology with the help of Dow Jones: “One of the main reasons we developed the JetLeader was for applications like this,” he says. “We spent two years in R&D with this press and introduced it to the world last year.

“This opportunity will assist us in proving the business model for companies that need to upgrade their existing equipment and produce a wide range of new products with one press.”

TKS has already announced that it will be running the inkjet web on its DRUPA stand next month.