, formerly is a Japanese media conglomerate that was created as a result of the merger of the original Kadokawa Corporation and Dwango Co., Ltd. on October 1, 2014.

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, 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 , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and CyberAgent 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 each receive a 1.93% stake in the company via American investment company of Japanese subsidiary, KKR Japan acquired a 12% stake. On October 29, 2021, Kadokawa announced that it had formed a capital and business alliance with

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the wo ...

, 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.

Controversy

In September 2022 chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa—son of founder Genyoshi—was arrested as part of a police investigation into bribery. Prosecutors alleged that the Kadokawa chairman gave ¥76 million (adjusted to ¥69 million under Japan's statute of limitations) 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 Tokyo Olympic and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

. The chairman was suspected of colluding with a current employee and a former executive at his company, both of whom were also arrested. 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 common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

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.

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,

bunkobon In Japan, are small-format paperback books, designed to be affordable and space saving. The great majority of ''bunkobon'' are A6 (105×148mm or 4.1"×5.8") in size. They are sometimes illustrated and like other Japanese paperbacks usually ...

paperbacks,

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) 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 prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

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

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 ...

; 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 system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

, and

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

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

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...

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 generally ...

Publication

BookWalker , stylized as 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 Corporation. The c ...

** GeeXPlus, Inc ** Trista * Choubunsha Publishing Co. * Comic Walker * eb Creative * Japan Digital Library Service * Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories * Kadokawa Book Navi * Kadokawa Future Publishing **

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because o ...

** Building Book Center ** Chukei Publishing ** Enterbrain **

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

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

** Media Factory * Kadokawa Game Linkage * Kadokawa Uplink * Mainichi GA Hakken * Production Ace

Group media

Dwango The Dial-up Wide-Area Network Game Operation, better known by the acronym DWANGO, was an early online gaming service based in the United States. Launched in 1994, it was originally known for its compatibility with '' Doom'', for which it functio ...

** Dehogallery ** Dwango AG Entertainment ** Dwango Music Publishing ** FromNetworks ** Niconico ** Project Studio Q ** Spike Chunsoft ** Vaka ** Vantan ** Virtual Cast Co., Ltd. ** Watanabe Amaduction * Docomo Anime Store * K.Sense (80%) * Kadokawa Media House * Kadokawa Uplink * Kids Net * Movie Walker ** Movie Ticket * T Gate * Smile Edge

Films and visuals

* ENGI (53%) * EuropaCorp Japan * Glovision * Japan Film Fund * Kadokawa Anime * Kadokawa Architecture * Kadokawa Daiei Studio ** Globalgate Entertainment * Kinema Citrus (31.8%) * Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting * Movie Walker * Persol Media Switch (30%) * Studio Kadan

Others

* ATX * Chara-Ani Corporation * Customcast * C・P・S * FromSoftware (69.66%, co-owned with

and

) * Gotcha Gotcha Games * Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories ** Cool Japan Travel, Inc. (75%) * Kadokawa Architecture * Kadokawa Contents Academy * Kadokawa Connected * Kadokawa Craft * Kadokawa Games * K’s Lab * Karksa Media Partner Corporation (34%) * Page Turner * Production Ace * Tokorozawa Sakuratown Corporation

Overseas

* Animate Oversea (joint venture under Kadokawa Taiwan with

Animate Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

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

, Kodansha,

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The fol ...

and

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the ...

** Animate JMA (Thailand) * J-Novel Club * Kadokawa Amarin (joint venture with

Amarin Group Amarin Printing and Publishing Public Company Limited, branded as Amarin Group, is a Thai media company. It began doing business in 1976 with the ''Baan Lae Suan'' shelter magazine, and grew to become a major publisher of books and glossy magazi ...

, marketed under the brand Phoenix Next) * Kadokawa Contents Academy * Kadokawa Hong Kong * Kadokawa Holdings Asia ** J-Guide 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 ...

(majority interest, co-owned with

Bandai Namco Filmworks , previously and still famously known as Sunrise Inc., is a Japanese animation studio founded in September 1972 and is based in Ogikubo, Tokyo. Its former names were also Soeisha, Nippon Sunrise and Sunrise Studio. Its primary division, , is r ...

and Christopher Macdonald, pending) * Sun Wah Kadokawa (Hong Kong) Group * Taiwan Animate * Yen Press (51%, co-owned with

Hachette Book Group Hachette Book Group (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 Lagardère Gr ...

)

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 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 in 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 endedm joint venture with NTT. * Sarugakucho: Became part of Kadokawa Group Holdings under Enterbrain during the

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...

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 announced the establishment of Words Gear with Kadokawa Mobile and Tokyo Broadcasting System, effective on October 2, 2006. On September 30, 2010, Kadokawa Group Holdings announced 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 2014 Liberal media in Japan 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