Japanese magazine admits plagiarism

TOKYO, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Kinyobi has admitted it plagiarized parts of wire reports from the nation's two largest news services.

The magazine issued an apology to Kyodo News Service and Jiji Press Monday in letters signed by Chief Editor Hajime Kitamura.

The story in question -- about the Liberal Democratic Party -- ran in the Sept. 16 issue, according to the magazine's editorial department. Some sentences in the story duplicated parts of wire reports from both of the news agencies, both distributed Sept. 12, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Thursday.

The magazine does not subscribe to either of the news services. The plagiarism was only discovered after a reader's query led to an investigation of the article.