The Duan Press was founded in 1996 in Tokyo by Duan Yuezhong (段躍中), also known as “Yakuchū Dan,” who previously worked at China Youth Daily (中國青年報), the official newspaper of the Communist Youth League of China. Duan arrived in Japan in 1991 and later established the press, which describes itself as promoting “mutual understanding” between the peoples of China and Japan, language that is often used by publications close to the Party. It publishes China-themed books in Japanese, and since 2004 has released a book each year around August 15, the date Japan identifies as marking its WWII surrender. The volume compiles testimonies from Japanese soldiers who participated in the war against China. Since 2005, the press has also hosted a Japanese-language essay competition for Chinese students, for which it received an Ambassador’s Commendation from Japan’s Embassy in Beijing in 2023. Duan and the press have received consistently favorable coverage from Chinese state media outlets, including China Daily, Beijing Review, and the Global Times. Duan Yuezhong is also listed as a researcher with the Charhar Institute (察哈爾學會), which describes itself as China’s leading non-governmental think tank on public diplomacy and international relations — though its own promotional PDF from 2017 notes that the “institute completes one or two research tasks assigned by the United Front Work Department of the [CCP] Central Committee every year.” The bio for Duan at the Charhar Institute also lists him as an overseas adviser to the Qingdao Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (青島市僑聯海外顧問) — a front organization under the CCP-run All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese — and as an editorial board member of China News Service’s World Chinese Media Yearbook, published under the aegis of the World Chinese Media Cooperative Union, a front organization operated by the UFWD through China News Service.