, commonly known as King Records, is a Japanese record company founded in January 1931 as a division of the Japanese publisher

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 ...

. It initially began operating as an independent entity in the 1950s. It later became part of the Otowa Group. Today, King Records is one of Japan's largest record companies which is not owned by a multinational entity. The label's headquarters are in Bunkyo, Tokyo. The label's name is actually based from the now-defunct '' Kingu'' magazine published by Kodansha from 1924 to 1957.

Sub-labels

Its Starchild label, was managed by animation producer Toshimichi Ōtsuki, specialised in

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 ...

music and film. King Records also distributes the Up-Front Works–owned and –operated labels Piccolo Town and Rice Music, and also released

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 ...

s for the PC-88, Famicom,

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

, and MSX2 platforms. On February 1, 2016, King Records restructured Starchild and renamed it King Amusement Creative. Paddle Wheel Records is a division of King Record Co. You! Be Cool was the official sub-label for

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol musical girl group named after the Akihabara area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48 has sold more records than any other female musical act in Japanese history. AK ...

. Venus-B is the company's official urban music imprint. Evil Line Records is the label's new division, established in April 2014, and comprises artists like

Momoiro Clover Z is a Japanese idol girl group, commonly abbreviated as MCZ or . The four members of MCZ are known for energetic performances, incorporating elements of ballet, gymnastics, and action movies. MCZ is notable for being the first female group to ho ...

and Meg, among others. Nexus is the label's division specialized for metal/underground music from Japan also overseas. Notable artists in it label are Earthshaker, etc. Seven Seas is the label's division focusing on world music from overseas artists in many genres. King Custom was a special division of King Records in Japan that began in the early 1960s. It allowed individuals to release their own works without oversight or promotional support from the label. King Records provided only the branding and distribution, leaving creators with full control over their content. This unique system supported independent and regional artists, preserving their artistic freedom while leveraging King Records' established reputation and network. The division worked with the following matrix numbers: NCS (7-inch records), NDS (33⅓ RPM EPs) and NAS (LPs). The label was discontinued in the late 1980s.

Notable artists

* Bolbbalgan4 * Stomu Yamashta * Inoran * Kana Uemura * Diedrich Hartmann * Nogod * Takeshi Terauchi * Hiroko Moriguchi *

Morning Musume , formerly and commonly known as and colloquially referred to as , is a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most to ...

* Tomomi Itano * Atsuko Maeda * Yuki Kashiwagi * Momoland * Miss Monochrome * Aice5 (Evil Line) *

Earphones Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an ...

(Evil Line) * Hypnosis Mic (Evil Line) * Charisma House (Evil Line) * Otsuki Miyako *

(Evil Line, formerly Starchild) * Meg (Evil Line) * Lynch. * Theatre Brook * Haruka Fukuhara * Sawa (Bellwood) * Park Junyoung * Hiroki Nanami * Jan Linton (as dr jan guru) "Planet Japan" * Rock A Japonica (Evil Line) * Senri Kawaguchi * Block B * Nana Mizuki (King Amusement Creative) * Mamoru Miyano (King Amusement Creative) * Suneohair (King Amusement Creative) * Ryoko Shiraishi (King Amusement Creative) * angela (King Amusement Creative) * Ai Nonaka (King Amusement Creative) * Yoko Takahashi (King Amusement Creative) * Soichiro Hoshi (King Amusement Creative) *

Sumire Uesaka is a Japanese voice actress and singer associated with Voice Kit. She won the Best Rookie Actress at the 10th Seiyu Awards. She made her singing debut in April 2013 under King Records. Career Uesaka became a regular on the web radio program ' ...

(King Amusement Creative) *

Inori Minase is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with Axl One. In March 2016, she won the Best Lead Actress Award in the 10th Seiyu Awards for her leading roles as Jun Naruse in the box office hit '' The Anthem of the Heart'' and as Yuki Ta ...

(King Amusement Creative) * Shouta Aoi (King Amusement Creative) * Satomi Sato (King Amusement Creative) * Yuuma Uchida (King Amusement Creative) * Yui Horie (King Amusement Creative) * Niji no Conquistador (King Amusement Creative) * B2takes! (King Amusement Creative) *

Miho Okasaki is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Okayama Prefecture who is affiliated with I'm Enterprise. She debuted as a voice actress in 2017, playing mostly background roles in anime series, as well as playing some roles in a number of video g ...

(King Amusement Creative) * AMATSUKI * AIMI (King Amusement Creative) * Mardelas (Nexus) * Light Bringer (Nexus)

Former artists

* Alice Nine (2005-2010; to Tokuma Japan Communications) *

(You, Be Cool!) (2008-2023; to Universal Music Japan) * CHAGE and ASKA (1985-1999; to Toshiba EMI) *

Eri Kitamura is a Japanese voice actress and singer. She was previously affiliated with Early Wing, but is now a freelancer. She is known for voicing prominent roles in anime and games such as Sayaka Miki in '' Puella Magi Madoka Magica'', Saya Otonashi in ...

(2011-2016; to TMS Music) * GFriend (2018-2021) * Kagrra, * Masumi Asano * Matenrou Opera (to self-owned amairo records) * Mikako Komatsu (2012-2016; to

Toy's Factory is a Japanese record label founded in the late 1980s as a subsidiary of the entertainment company VAP, based in Japan. On May 30, 1990, it was established as an independent company. It is an associate member of the Recording Industry Assoc ...

) * Megumi Hayashibara (1991-2019; freelance) * Masami Okui (1993-2004; to

Geneon (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, owned by American telecommunications/media company Comcast headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo ...

until 2011 when she signed with Lantis) * Michiyo Azusa * Miho Nakayama * Minori Chihara (2004) * Sung Si-kyung (2023 -) * Neko Jump (2006-2011; Former overseas partner of Kamikaze) * Sound Horizon to

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

* the pillows (1994-2006; to

avex trax is a record label owned by Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex Inc. The label was launched in September 1990, and was the first label by the Group. History Two years after Max Matsuura began a career distributing studio albums from othe ...

) * The Gazette (2005-2010; to

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

) *

TWO-MIX Two-Mix (temporarily known as II MIX⊿DELTA) is a J-pop, Japanese pop duo formed in 1995 by Minami Takayama (vocals and composer) and Shiina Nagano (synthesizer, composer and lyricist). Their style is fast Electronic music, electronic Pop music, ...

(1995-1998; to Warner Music Japan) * YuiKaori * Yui Sakakibara to 5pb. Records *

Yui Ogura is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Gunma Prefecture. Career In 2009, Ogura performed the motion capture for Hatsune Miku in the game ''Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA (video game), Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA''. Ogura is a member of the J ...

(2012-2022; King Amusement Creative; to

Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

)📝 小倉唯が所属レーベルを日本コロムビアに移籍。第1弾シングルを今冬リリース予定
/ref> * Yukari Tamura * Yuki Uchida * Yuko Ogura

Sub-labels

Notable artists

Former artists

See also

References

External links