Dentsu Inc. ( ja, 株式会社電通 ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dentsū'' or
電通 ''Dentsū'' for short) is a Japanese international advertising and public relations
joint stock company
A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders a ...
headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is currently the largest advertising agency in Japan and the fifth largest advertising agency network in the world in terms of worldwide revenues.
[
]
Dentsu does business with almost every major institution in Japan, accounting for about 28 percent of the national advertising budget.
Its connections to the government are so tight that ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' referred to Dentsu as "the unofficial communications department of the governing
Liberal Democratic Party", and it has also been likened to the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
on account of its reach.
History
Dentsu was originally established as and by
Hoshiro Mitsunaga. In 1906, Telegraphic Service Co. became . The next year, Japan Advertising Ltd. merged with Japan Telegraphic Communication Co., Ltd. to create advertising and communications operations. Japan Telegraphic Communication Co., Ltd. sold off its news division to
Doumei News Agency in 1936 to change the company's focus to specialized advertising. In 1943, 16 companies were acquired in order to supplement Japan Telegraphic's advertising business. That same year, operational bases were established in Tokyo,
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
,
Nagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...
, and
Kyūshū
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
. With the 1951 arrival of commercial radio broadcasting in Japan, the Radio Division was established at Japan Telegraphic's head and local offices.
In 1955, Japan Telegraphic Communication Co., Ltd. changed its name to Dentsu Inc. 1995 saw Dentsu creating five domestic regional subsidiaries.
Initial public offering
Dentsu was listed on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange
The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed ...
in 2001. During the
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
of Dentsu, in December 2001, a trader at
UBS Warburg
UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the largest Swi ...
, the Swiss investment bank, sent an order to sell 610,000 shares in this company at ¥6 each, while he intended to sell 16 shares at ¥600,000. The bank lost £71 million.
Dentsu's sales are more than double its nearest competitor,
Hakuhodo
is a Japanese advertising and public relations company. It is headquartered at Akasaka Biz Tower in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo.
History
Hakuhodo is one of the oldest advertising agencies in Japan and was founded by Hironao Seki at Nihonbashi-Hon ...
or
ADK, in the
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
ese market, thanks to the company's origins as a media representative during the early part of the 20th century, producing the first newspaper advertisements as well as the first television commercials in Japan.
Geneon Entertainment
In July 2003, Dentsu acquired
Pioneer LDC from
Pioneer Corporation
commonly referred to as Pioneer, is a Japanese multinational corporation based in Tokyo, that specializes in digital entertainment products. The company was founded by Nozomu Matsumoto in January 1, 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair ...
and renamed it to Geneon Entertainment, while its North American division, Pioneer Entertainment, was renamed to Geneon USA.
On November 12, 2008, Dentsu announced that it was selling 80.1% of its ownership in Geneon to
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primar ...
's Universal Pictures International Entertainment (UPI), who planned to merge the company with its Universal Pictures Japan division to form a new company.
The merger closed on February 1, 2009.
Aegis Group
On 12 July 2012, Dentsu agreed to acquire British-based
Aegis Group plc
Dentsu International (previously Dentsu Aegis Network) is a multinational media and digital marketing communications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese advertising and public relations ...
in a cash deal worth $4.9 billion. The deal was completed in March 2013.
Dentsu Aegis Network
Dentsu International (previously Dentsu Aegis Network) is a multinational media and digital marketing communications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese advertising and public relations ...
, managed all Aegis Media work and non-Japanese Dentsu operations worldwide. In September 2020 Dentsu Group Inc. announced that its international business Dentsu Aegis Network will operate under the dentsu brand. This simplification has seen three lines of business established across media, customer relationship management, and creative. The business is registered as Dentsu International Limited with UK Companies House in October 2020.
Dentsu Ventures
In April 2015, Dentsu announced the launch of its corporate venture capital fund, Dentsu Ventures, to provide companies across the U.S., Europe, and Asia with capital and business support. In the same month, Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I was launched with a total capital of five billion yen.
In May 2021, Dentsu Ventures Global Fund II was launched with a total capital of ten billion yen.
Dentsu Ventures investments include
Cheddar,
Clear Labs
Clear Labs, Inc. is a private genomics testing company headquartered in San Carlos, California, United States. It offers a fully automated, next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform for turnkey diagnostics, including SARS-CoV-2 genomic characteriza ...
,
Exo,
GRAIL
The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) was an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program which used high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The two small spacecraf ...
,
Overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:
*by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...
,
OpenWeb,
Survios
Survios is an American virtual reality game developer and software publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company develops virtual reality software and games, including the titles ''Raw Data'' and ''Sprint Vector''. Survios was created by ...
,
Twist Bioscience
Twist Bioscience is a public biotechnology company based in South San Francisco that manufactures synthetic DNA and DNA products for customers in a wide range of industries. Twist was founded in 2013 by Emily Leproust, Bill Banyai, and Bill Peck ...
,
Tynker, and
Upside Foods.
Corporate affairs
Project categorization
Dentsu Inc. categorises project markets in four different parts: National advertisement market; Advertisement-related market; New market; Foreign market (in addition to Dentsu Aegis Network, its overseas subsidiary, which operates in over 120 countries). National advertisement market consists of media projects. Advertisement related projects consist of marketing services. New market consists of sport events advertisement. Foreign market contains above mentioned three categories in the foreign market.
Dentsu Building
The Dentsu Building is a high-rise building in
Shiodome
is an area in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, located adjacent to Shinbashi and Ginza, near Tokyo Bay and the Hamarikyu Gardens. Formerly a railway terminal, Shiodome has been transformed into one of Tokyo's most modern areas. It is a collection of 11 ti ...
,
Minato
Minato (港 or 湊) is Japanese for 'harbor', and may refer to:
Places
* Minato, Tokyo or Minato City, a special ward in Tokyo, Japan
* Minato-ku, Nagoya, a ward of Nagoya, Japan
* Minato-ku, Osaka, a ward of Osaka, Japan
* Minato (湊), a neig ...
,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...
, which houses Dentsu's corporate offices. With 48 floors that rise to 213.34 m (700 ft), it is the eleventh-tallest building in Tokyo. It was designed by
Jean Nouvel
Jean Nouvel (; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of ''Mars 1976'' and '' Syndicat de l'Architecture'', France’s first labor union for architects. He has o ...
, the French architect, and completed in 2002. It was built over the site of Tokyo's first railway station, and sits aside the
Hamarikyu Gardens, formerly the site of a
shōgun's vacation home.
Mount Fuji climbing tradition
Since 1925, Dentsu employees have had a company tradition of climbing
Mount Fuji
, or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest ...
. Every July all new staff and newly promoted executives climb Mt Fuji. Employees who are not physically able to do so are exempt. A former employee gave the reasoning behind this as: "The message is: 'We are going to conquer the one symbol that represents Japan more than anything else. And, once we do that, it will signify that we can do anything.
Overworking controversy
In August 2015, Dentsu was caught exceeding its own 70-hour monthly maximum overtime limit.
In December Matsuri Takahashi, a
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...
graduate and 24-year-old female employee of Dentsu, committed suicide.
The
Japanese government
The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, ...
recognized her suicide as
karoshi.
In July 2017, the company was charged by Japanese authorities for the death of Takahashi. No individuals were charged, only the corporation.
The company admitted allowing illegal levels of overtime and was convicted in October, paying ¥500,000 in fines.
Mr. Tadashi Ishii, Representative Director and President &
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
, notified Dentsu on December 28, 2016 that he will resign as Representative Director and President & CEO.
[ His papers were sent to the prosecutors office because of the violation of the Labor Standards Act. Over a half century of ongoing overworking was documented by ''The New York Times'',][ including training materials supporting a Dentsu president urging working "'' even if it kills you''."
A 2017 attempt to encourage letting workers "leave the office at 3 p.m. on the last Friday of the month" did not get much participation. Also in 2017, a former executive creative director of Dentsu Japan has resigned from his own company following allegations he sexually harassed a woman during his tenure at the advertising giant.
]
Dentsu Group companies
Affiliates and shareholdings
* Madhouse (minority shareholder)
* Vernalossom Co., Ltd. (minority shareholder)
* Shibuya-AX (joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
)
* TNC (5.1%, minority shareholder)
* Video Research Ltd. (34.2%, leading shareholder)
Outside Japan
* Lords Group (joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
)
* Collett, Dickenson, Pearce & Partners (40% shareholder)
See also
*Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a conservativeThe Liberal Democratic Party is widely described as conservative:
*
*
*
*
* political party in Japan.
The LDP has been in power almost continuously since its foundation in 1955—a per ...
*Anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
*Kadokawa Kadokawa may refer to:
*Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group
**Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker
**Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publi ...
References
; Notes
; Sources
*
Annual Report 2015
''. Dentsu 2015.
Further reading
* Kawashima, Nobuko. "Advertising agencies, media and consumer market: The changing quality of TV advertising in Japan." ''Media, Culture & Society'' 28#3 (2006): 393–410.
* Moriarty, Sandra, et al. ''Advertising: Principles and practice'' (Pearson Australia, 2014), Australian perspectives
* Sugiyama, Kotaro, and Tim Andree
Tim Andree is the executive vice president and director of Dentsu, Inc., and the executive chairman and chief executive officer of its subsidiary, Dentsu Aegis Network, as well as a former professional basketball player. He played in the McDona ...
. ''The Dentsu Way: Secrets of Cross Switch Marketing from the World's Most Innovative Advertising Agency'' (2010)
External links
Official Website
{{Authority control
2001 initial public offerings
Advertising agencies of Japan
Anime companies
Anti-communist organizations in Japan
Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
Conservative media in Japan
Dentsu Aegis Network brands
Japanese companies established in 1901
Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)
Marketing companies established in 1901
Mass media companies of Japan
Mass media in Tokyo
Propaganda in Japan