, formerly is a Japanese conglomerate based in Fujimi, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Created as a result of the

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

of the original Kadokawa Corporation and Dwango Co., Ltd. on October 1, 2014, the company has holdings in entertainment (including

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

and

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

studios), publishing, and real estate among other assets. Kadokawa is a member of the Motion Picture Association of Japan (MPPAJ) and is therefore one of the youngest of Japan's Big Four film studios.

History

The holding company known today as Kadokawa Corporation was originally founded in 1945 as

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines ...

, to "revitalize Japanese culture through publishing" in the postwar era. It was merged with Dwango Co., Ltd. to form Kadokawa Dwango on October 1, 2014, and became a subsidiary of Kadokawa Dwango. In February 2019, Kadokawa Dwango announced that Dwango would stop being their subsidiary to be a direct subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation in a reorganization of the company. This made Kadokawa Corporation the sole subsidiary of the holding company Kadokawa Dwango. On July 1, 2019, Kadokawa Dwango was reorganized again; only the publishing business remained in Kadokawa Corporation, and it was renamed

Kadokawa Future Publishing is the publishing arm of Kadokawa Corporation, publishing manga, novels, light novels, magazines, tabletop role-playing games and other type of content with eight different publishing brand companies that previously merged with it. The company u ...

, while Kadokawa Dwango itself became the second iteration of Kadokawa Corporation and the holding company of all of the Kadokawa Group companies. The original name

remains as a brand and a division of Kadokawa Future Publishing. On February 4, 2021, Kadokawa announced that the company had formed a Capital Alliance with

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

and

CyberAgent is a Japanese digital advertising company, which was founded in 1998 by Susumu Fujita and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is owned by Susumu Fujita with 20.50% interest; Fujita is the representative director, while Yusuke Hidaka is the execut ...

to strengthen the company's creation, development, and acquisition of new IP while also maximizing use of existing IPs. As part of the agreement, both Sony and CyberAgent would receive a 1.93% stake in the company. By August 2021, Kakao Japan had acquired an 8.3% stake in Kadokawa, making them the largest shareholder at the time. On October 29, 2021, Kadokawa announced that it had formed a capital and business alliance with

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

, which acquired a 6.86% stake in the conglomerate for ¥30 billion ($264 million). The aim of the alliance is for Kadokawa to expand its global reach using Tencent's platforms. China, where the company has an existing joint venture with Tencent, is a particular target. In January 2024, Kadokawa announced that they've entered a partnership with Belgium publishing company

Dupuis Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgium, Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines. Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis is mostly famous for its comic comics album, albums and magazines. Initially a French language publisher, it now ...

to acquire a 51% stake in the latter's manga imprint Vega Dupuis and had launched a joint venture business with Dupuis that could bring Kadokawa's own titles as well as publishing Japanese and Korean comics to the French market named Vega SAS with Dupuis retaining a 49% stake in the now joint venture imprint. In July 2024, the company announced that it had acquired anime studio

Doga Kobo is a Japanese animation studio formed by former Toei Animation members Hideo Furusawa and Megumu Ishiguro, located in Nerima, Tokyo, Japan. The studio was established on July 11, 1973, and is a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation. Although the st ...

. In November 2024, it was reported that Sony Group Corporation was in talks to acquire Kadokawa. Sony, which had acquired shares in the company in 2021, had previously discussed acquiring Kadokawa outright, but was only interested in its anime and video game assets. However, Kadokawa insisted that acquisition offers encompass the entire company. On December 19, 2024, Sony announced a "strategic capital and business alliance" with Kadokawa, under which it acquired 12 million new shares for ¥50 billion ($320 million) on January 7, 2025, giving Sony a 10% stake and making them Kadokawa's largest single shareholder. As part of the agreement, Kadokawa is set to collaborate with Sony on projects involving its IPs, including anime co-productions, live-action adaptations, and widening distribution. On February 2025, Kadokawa announced the merger of Dwango,

BookWalker , stylized as Book☆Walker and BOOK☆WALKER, is a Japanese e-book store that sells manga, light novels, and magazines from various publishers, as well as a few published by themselves. It is based in Chiyoda, Tokyo and was created by Kadokawa ...

and Kadokawa Connected into one company, with Dwango being the surviving company. This merger won't affect the activities of the merged companies, such as BookWalker, which will continue with its brand and operations but now managed by Dwango.

Arrest of chairman

In September 2022 chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa—son of founder Genyoshi—was arrested as part of a police investigation into

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

. Prosecutors alleged that the Kadokawa chairman authorized a ¥76 million payment (adjusted to ¥69 million under Japan's

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...

) to a consulting company with ties to a former executive of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee in exchange for being selected as an official sponsor of the 2020 Summer Olympic and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

. Kadokawa has denied the allegations, and his company announced that it would cooperate with the investigation. Kadokawa was indicted by

prosecutors A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

on October 4, 2022. Later that day he announced his intent to resign as the chairman of his company. He continued to deny the allegations and vowed to prove his innocence at trial.

2024 ransomware attack

On June 8, 2024, a group of hackers called BlackSuit launched a

ransomware Ransomware is a type of malware that Encryption, encrypts the victim's personal data until a ransom is paid. Difficult-to-trace Digital currency, digital currencies such as paysafecard or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, cryptocurrencies are com ...

attack on multiple websites owned by Kadokawa, including the video streaming website

Niconico , known before 2012 as , is a Japanese video sharing service based in Tokyo, Japan. "Niconico" or "nikoniko" is the Japanese sound symbolism, Japanese ideophone for smiling. As of 2021, Niconico is the 34th most-visited website in Japan, accordi ...

, resulting in most of its services being temporarily suspended. On June 27, the hacker group published a statement on the

dark web The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets ( overlay networks) that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private computer networks can communica ...

, claiming responsibility for the attack and threatening to release 1.5

terabytes The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...

of stolen data, which included business partner information and user data, unless a ransom was paid.

Group companies

Kadokawa Corporation serves to bring together several affiliated Japanese companies related to Kadokawa Shoten under what is known as the Kadokawa Group. These companies are of three types: publishing, film and visuals, and cross media. The publishers primarily deal with

books A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...

, bunkobon paperbacks,

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

, and visual media magazines; the film and visual companies deal with Japanese feature films and DVD sales of international films and

; the cross media companies deal with digital content, urban information and television program information magazines, along with information transmission combining paper media, the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, and

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s. Other aspects of the group are handled by the other business segment which primarily takes care of

s, real estate leasing, and comprises an

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generall ...

Publication

* Choubunsha Publishing Co. * Comic Walker * eb Creative * Japan Digital Library Service * Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories * Kadokawa Book Navi *

ASCII Media Works , formerly , is a Japanese Publishing, publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing headquartered in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It originally formed on April 1, 2008, as a result of a Mergers and acquisitions, merger bet ...

** Building Book Center ** Chukei Publishing **

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on January 30, 1987, as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strate ...

Fujimi Shobo , formerly , was a Japanese publisher that specialized in light novels, manga, Japanese role-playing games, role-playing games and collectible card games. Founded in 1972 and reorganized three times, it was at times an independent company and at ...

** Kadokawa Gakugei Publishing ** Kadokawa Key-Process ** Kadokawa Magazines **

Media Factory , formerly known as , was a Japanese publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing. History The company was founded on December 1, 1986, and was a subsidiary of Recruit (Japanese company), Recruit Co., Ltd., based in Shibuya, Tokyo. ...

* Kadokawa Game Linkage * Kadokawa LifeDesign * Kadokawa Uplink * Mainichi GA Hakken * Production Ace

Group media and Entertainment

Acquire ''Acquire'' is a board game published by 3M in 1964 that involves multi-player mergers and acquisitions. It was one of the most popular games in the 3M Bookshelf games series published in the 1960s, and the only one still published in the Uni ...

* Dwango **

Spike Chunsoft is a Japanese video game development and video game localization, localization company specializing in role-playing video games, visual novels and adventure games. The company was founded in 1984 as Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and merged with Spike (compa ...

*** Spike Chunsoft, Inc ** Dehogallery ** Dwango AG Entertainment ** Dwango Music Publishing ** GeeXPlus, Inc **

** Project Studio Q ** Trista ** Vaka ** Vantan ** Virtual Cast Co., Ltd. ** Watanabe Amaduction ** FromNetworks * Docomo Anime Store *

FromSoftware FromSoftware, Inc. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. Founded by Naotoshi Zin on November 1, 1986 as a business software developer, the company released their first video game, '' King's Field'', for the PlayStation in 1994. Its s ...

(69.66%) * Gotcha Gotcha Games * K.Sense (80%) * Kadokawa Media House * Kadokawa Uplink * Kids Net * Movie Walker ** Movie Ticket * T-Gate * Smile Edge

Films and visuals

* Bellnox Films *

* ENGI (53%) * EuropaCorp Japan * Glovision * Japan Film Fund * Kadokawa Anime * Kadokawa Architecture *

Kadokawa Daiei Studio Kadokawa Daiei Studio Co., Ltd., formerly is the film production division of the Japanese company the Kadokawa Corporation. History In 1945, Genyoshi Kadokawa established Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., focusing on the publishing business. ...

** Globalgate Entertainment * Kadokawa Kplus *

Kinema Citrus is a Japanese animation studio, founded on March 3, 2008, by former Production I.G and Bones members and based in Suginami, Tokyo. Its business directors are Muneki Ogasawara, Yuichiro Matsuka and Masaki Tachibana. Notable works include ''Tok ...

(31.8%) * Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting * Movie Walker * Persol Media Switch (30%) * RagingBull * Studio Kadan

Others

* ATX * Arclight * Anime Tourism Association * Customcast * C・P・S * Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories ** Cool Japan Travel, Inc. (75%) * Kadokawa Architecture * Kadokawa Contents Academy * Kadokawa Craft * K's Lab * Karksa Media Partner Corporation (34%) * Page Turner * Production Ace * Tokorozawa Sakuratown Corporation * Yellow Jam

Overseas

* Animate Oversea (joint venture under Kadokawa Taiwan with

Animate Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

and United Distribution Co.) * Guangzhou Tianwen Kadokawa Animation and Comics * Hemisphere Motion Picture Partners I * Hemisphere Motion Picture Partners II * Japan Manga Alliance (joint venture with

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

and

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

) ** Animate JMA (Thailand) *

J-Novel Club J-Novel Club is a publishing company specializing in the translation of Japanese light novels into English. It streams light novels and manga in regular installments before publishing finalized e-books. As of August 2021, J-Novel Club has licens ...

** JNC Nina * Kadokawa Amarin (joint venture with Amarin Group, marketed under the brand Phoenix Next) * Kadokawa Contents Academy * Kadokawa Hong Kong * Kadokawa Holdings Asia ** Kadokawa Global Marketing ** Kadokawa Gempak Starz (Malaysia) (80%) * Kadokawa Holdings US * Kadokawa International Edutainment (Taiwan) * Kadokawa Pictures America * Kadokawa Taiwan Corporation ** Kadokawa Consulting (Thailand) * Kadokawa Qingyu (Shanghai) Culture & Creation * Kadokawa World Entertainment (US) **

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

(majority, co-owned with Christopher Macdonald and

Bandai Namco Filmworks is a Japanese entertainment company owned by Bandai Namco Holdings with its business focused on production, planning, and management of anime. It was founded in September 1972 by former Mushi Production staff as the animation studio branch o ...

) * Phoenix Gramedia Indonesia (joint venture with

Kompas Gramedia Kompas Gramedia is a major Indonesian media company. It engages in several businesses, predominantly mass media, as well as hospitality, manufacturing, and event organizing. The company's businesses consist of multiple divisions, such as media ...

) * Sun Wah Kadokawa (Hong Kong) Group * Taiwan Animate *

Yen Press Yen Press is an American manga, graphic novel and light novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published '' Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, ...

(51%, co-owned with

Hachette Book Group Hachette Book Group, Inc. (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagard� ...

)

Technology

Former subsidiaries

* Asmik Ace * Daihyakka News: Merged with Dwango in July 2019. * Kadokawa Entertainment: On November 1, 2009, Kadokawa Entertainment was merged into Kadokawa Pictures. * Kadokawa Group Publishing: On April 1, 2013, Kadokawa Group Publishing was merged into Kadokawa Group Holdings. * Kadokawa Games: In May 2022, Kadokawa Games divested its business into a separate company called Dragami Games, including its IPs. * Kadokawa J:COM Media: Established in November 2005 as a joint venture between Kadokawa Shoten and J:COM. It was eliminated in June 2010. * So-net Kadokawa Link: Established on June 27, 2007, with So-net Entertainment (43.5%), Kadokawa Mobile (43.5%), and Dentsu E-link (13.0%). * Kadokawa Mobile and Movie Gate: On October 1, 2009, Kadokawa Mobile merged with Movie Gate to form Kadokawa Contents Gate. * Kadokawa Production: On October 1, 2013, the company was dissolved and integrated into Kadokawa Corporation. * Mages: On July 12, 2019, Mages was acquired by Chiyomaru Studio, a concept and copyright company also headed by Mages CEO. * MediaLeaves: On January 10, 2010, MediaLeaves was merged into Enterbrain. * NTT Prime Square: On November 30, 2010, Fan service ended a joint venture with NTT. * Sarugakucho: Became part of Kadokawa Group Holdings under Enterbrain during the

ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

acquisition. On March 31, 2010, Pole To Win announced that it has acquired Sarugakucho. * Studio Lide: Closed in April 2019. * Words Gear: On September 26, 2006,

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

announced the establishment of Words Gear with Kadokawa Mobile and

Tokyo Broadcasting System (formerly ) is a Japanese media and licensed broadcasting holding company. It is the parent company of the television network TBS Television and radio network TBS Radio. It has a 28-affiliate television network called Japan News Network, as ...

, effective on October 2, 2006. On September 30, 2010, Kadokawa Group Holdings announced that it will merging Words Gear into Kadokawa Contents Gate, with Kadokawa Contents Gate as the surviving company, effective on January 1, 2011.

References

External links

* {{ENGI Comic book publishing companies in Tokyo Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Entertainment companies established in 1945 Holding companies based in Tokyo Holding companies established in 2014 Japanese brands Japanese companies established in 1945 Japanese companies established in 2014 Magazine publishing companies in Tokyo Mass media companies of Japan Mass media companies established in 1945 Multinational companies headquartered in Japan Multinational publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1945 Publishing companies established in 2014 2014 mergers and acquisitions Chiyoda, Tokyo