Shūkan Bunshun (週刊文春, Shūkan Bunshun; lit. "Weekly Bunshun") is a Japanese weekly tabloid (shūkanshi) based in Tokyo, Japan, known for its investigative journalism and frequent clashes with the Japanese government. This has led to it being considered one of the most influential weekly magazines in the country.

Shūkan Bunshun was first published in April 1959. The magazine is part of Bungeishunjū, a publishing group headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. From October 2014 to September 2015 Shūkan Bunshun was the fourth best selling weekly magazine in Japan with a circulation of 680,296 copies. As of 2023, the total number of copies sold has dropped to 165,794. As a general-news magazine, Shūkan Bunshun's major competitor is the more conservative Shukan Shincho.

The magazine has been praised, but also criticized for its investigative reporting which takes on both political scandals, as well as those from the world of entertainment, and these kinds of reports are colloquially known as the "Bunshun cannon" (文春砲, Bunshunhō). In the first three months of 2016, "It brought down a minister and a politician, practically destroyed the careers of a popular celebrity and a news commentator and nearly broke up one of Japan's biggest boy bands," reported the BBC which stated that the magazine was "shaking up the cosy media club" in Japan. However, the magazine was also widely criticized for its exposé of Tetsuya Komuro's adultery, with The Japan Times stating that the story was not favorably received and that "Japanese netizens appear to have turned against Shukan Bunshun and other scandal-baiting publications.

Bunshun is also known for sensationalist headlines and texts that put the subjects they deal with in a bad light because, in a system in which advertising profits are increased by the number of contacts, what matters is attracting the attention of readers. According the "concept that interest (attention) is economically superior to quality of information" has led to cases like the one noted by the lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies Jeffrey J. Hall, when Komuro Kei, consort of ex-Princess Mako, started using a widespread app like Telegram and Bunshun associated Komuro with crime because in Japan Telegram was used by some criminals.

In January 1984, Shūkan Bunshun reported the suspicion that Kazuyoshi Miura, a trading company owner, had someone shoot and kill his wife Kazumi in Los Angeles in November 1981 to obtain a huge insurance payout. They also reported the suspicion that Miura murdered his lover, Chizuko Shiraishi, in Los Angeles in 1979 and withdrew a large sum of money from her account. These cases were dubbed "L.A. Scandal". Until then, Miura had been treated as a tragic man whose wife was ruthlessly shot in Los Angeles, but overnight he was thrust into a completely opposite position. Following the Shūkan Bunshun articles, tabloid TV shows and numerous weekly magazines reported the scandal extensively day after day, night after night. In addition, they also reported extensively on Miura's privacy and his history of juvenile delinquency. The frenzy continued for a while, with numerous reporters and photographers surrounding Miura's house throughout the day, and as a result, he and his family fled to London for a time. In response, some of the press chased them all the way to London. Subsequently, an actress, a former lover of Miura, confessed that she had attacked his wife at his request in Los Angeles in August 1981. Miura was arrested in September 1985, and after a lengthy trial, the Tokyo District Court sentenced him to life imprisonment. However, the Tokyo High Court acquitted him for insufficient evidence, and in 2003, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the prosecution, thus confirming his innocence. (In the case of the actress who attacked his wife, he was convicted.) Note that after his arrest, he filed lawsuits against more than 400 articles in the press that he considered defamatory. According to Miura's own claim, he won more than 80% of these cases. In February 2008, Miura went to Saipan, where he was arrested by local authorities because his cases were still under investigation in the U.S. territory. In October 2008, he was extradited to Los Angeles and committed suicide in jail.

In April 1985, Shūkan Bunshun published the photo of six members of the idol group Onyanko Club smoking in a coffee shop. This led to the dismissal of five out of the six members from the group. Since they were considered core members of the group, the scandal changed the form and fate of Onyanko Club.

In 1989, Shūkan Bunshun uncovered and published the identities of the four male teenagers (Hiroshi Miyano, Jō Ogura, Shinji Minato, and Yasushi Watanabe) who abducted, raped, tortured and then subsequently murdered Junko Furuta on the grounds that, given the severity of the crime, the accused did not deserve to have their right to anonymity upheld.

In 2001, Shūkan Bunshun ran a series on sexual harassment allegations against Johnny & Associates founder Johnny Kitagawa, along with claims that Kitagawa had allegedly forced boys to drink alcohol and smoke. The exposé was particularly notable in that Shūkan Bunshun was the only media outlet willing to publish such allegations, especially since Kitagawa was known to have control over entertainment media. Johnny & Associates sued Shukan Bunshun for defamation, and in 2002, the Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of Kitagawa, awarding him ¥8.8 million in damages. In 2003, the fine was lowered to ¥1.2 million on the basis that the drinking and smoking allegations were defamatory, while the sexual harassment claims were not. Kitagawa filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan, but it was rejected in 2004.