Following the trend of paywalls being put up on news sites around the world, Japan's largest business newspaper, The Nikkei, erected paywalls on its new Web site last week and also imposed a policy restricting links to its articlesand its home page, The New York Times reported.

A detailed application stating reasons for linking to the Web site has to be provided to link to Nikkei's home page. The paper has additionally disabled the right-click feature that usually brings up a menu including ''copy link address.'' The paper's ''link policy'' ends on an ominous note: ''We may seek damages for any violations of these rules.''

The Nikkei says the rules are intended to make sure its pay wall is not breached and to prevent the linking of its content from ''inappropriate'' sites, the author, Hiroko Tabuchi, told The New York Times.

A month's subscription to Nikkei's online edition can cost the reader 4,000 yen, which is less than the cost of a one-month print edition at 4,383 yen, according to The Times. Statistics show that at least one daily newspaper is still delivered for every household in Japan, yet the younger Japanese populace is turning to the Web for news, causing many newspapers to see losses in print subscribers.

This move by Nikkei is intended as a step towards protecting itself from being put in the position U.S. newspapers are currently in, and also preventing its content from ending up in "pump and dump scams," according to Crunch Gear Blog. The publishers will have to convince the next generation readers to pay for online content, to make the digital medium a success.

"Japan's papers have seen their American counterparts suffer by offering everything for free," Yoshihiro Oto, a journalism professor at Sophia University in Tokyo told The Times. "They're convinced openness doesn't work."

While newspapers are trying to protect their online content for monetary reasons, Nikkei expressed concern that certain sites might "manipulate" their business stories, "inaccurately affect(ing) financial markets," according to a blog posted on MediaBistro.

With smaller publications in Japan like the Sankei Shimbun attracting readers to access free articles through its iPhone app, and many international publications trying to find a balance between the paywall and free medium, The Nikkei's policy of limiting information flow over the web is causing some bloggers to claim the newspaper has a "fundamental misunderstanding of how new media functions," according to MediaBistro.

The introduction of this policy initiative has created unrest in the Japan blogosphere with critics commenting about the lack of online strategy and sluggish traditional media, despite Japan's reputation as the forerunner of technological innovations, according to The Times.

"Nikkei thinks it can go online, but cut themselves off from the wider Internet. They just don't get it," stated Toshinao Sasaki, a technology writer and author to The Times. "The way forward is to link free content with paid content, and links play a big role there."

The newspaper further assured that requests to link to its home page will be responded to by members of its staff "within days." However, they did not disclose the number of declined requests, MYDigitalFC.com reported.