was a Japanese writer and publisher who was the founder of

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 ...

, a leading publishing company, which his family still wholly own today. He was the founder and publisher of many well-known newspapers and magazines.

Early life and education

Noma was born in 1878. His father hailed from a

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

family and was himself a samurai. Noma was educated as a teacher.

Career

Following his graduation Noma worked as a teacher in the Luchu Islands. Later he served as a schoolmaster. Then he began to work as an administrative official at the Imperial University's law department in Tokyo. Noma established a publishing company, Dainippon Yūbenkai (Japanese: the Great Japanese Oratorical Society), in 1910. The company would be later renamed as Dainippon Yūbenkai-Kodansha, which later be shortened as simply

. The first publication of the company was '' Yūben'', a monthly magazine on public speech. The nine magazines Noma started enjoyed high levels of circulations and were very influential on the popular culture of Japan. His goal in starting these titles was to modernize, entertain and educate Japanese society. On the other hand, they comprised the 75% of the total circulation of all Japanese publications. These publications included ''Kōdan Club'' (from which Kodansha is named for), '' Shōnen Club'', ''Omoshiro Club'', ''Gendai'' (Japanese: ''Present Generation''), ''Fujin Club'', '' Shōjo Club'' and ''

Kingu Qingu (, '' dqin-gu''; less commonly romanized as Kingu) was a Mesopotamian god. He is best known from the ''Enūma Eliš'', where he acts as a subordinate and spouse of Tiamat, and an adversary of Marduk. After his defeat he is killed and his b ...

''. The latter was his flagship magazine which was identified with the company. In 1930 he established ''Hochi Shimbun'' (Japanese: ''Intelligence Newspaper'') which also became an influential publication.

Personal life and death

Noma's wife was a teacher. He died of heart attack in Tokyo on 18 October 1938.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noma, Seiji 19th-century Japanese educators 20th-century Japanese businesspeople 1878 births 1938 deaths Japanese magazine founders Japanese company founders

Early life and education

Career

Personal life and death

See also

References