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Native name | 株式会社講談社 |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Kabushiki gaisha Kōdansha |
| Formerly | Dainippon Yubenkai-Kodansha (1911–1958) |
| Company type | Family-ownedprivateKK |
| Industry | Publishing,music |
| Founded | 1911; 114 years ago (1911) (as Dai Nippon Yūbenkai) December 1, 1931; 93 years ago (1931-12-01) (as Kodansha Ltd.) |
| Founder | Seiji Noma |
| Headquarters | Otowa,, Japan |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Yoshinobu Noma [jp][1] (president andCEO) |
| Products | Books,light novels,magazines,manga,comics,CDs andDVDs (through King Records) |
| Owner | Noma family (Noma Cultural Foundation 39.2%) |
Number of employees | 914 (as of September 2013[update]) |
| Subsidiaries | King Record Co., Ltd. Kobunsha Co., Ltd. Kodansha USA Ichijinsha Wani Books |
| Website | www |
Kodansha Ltd. (Japanese:株式会社講談社,Hepburn:Kabushiki-gaisha Kōdansha) is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered inBunkyō,Tokyo.[2] Kodansha publishesmanga magazines which includeNakayoshi,Morning,Afternoon,Evening,Weekly Young Magazine,Weekly Shōnen Magazine, andBessatsu Shōnen Magazine, as well as the more literary magazinesGunzō,Shūkan Gendai, and theJapanese dictionary,Nihongo Daijiten. Kodansha was founded by Seiji Noma in 1910, and members of his family continue as its owners either directly or through the Noma Cultural Foundation.
Seiji Noma founded Kodansha in 1910 as a spin-off of theDai-Nippon Yūbenkai (大日本雄辯會, "Greater Japan Oratorical Society") and produced the literary magazine,Yūben, (雄辯) as its first publication.[3] The nameKodansha (taken fromKōdan Club (講談倶楽部), a now-defunct magazine published by the company) originated in 1911 when the publisher formally merged with theDai-Nippon Yūbenkai. The company has used its current legal name since 1958. It uses the motto"omoshirokute, tame ni naru" (面白くて、ためになる, "To be interesting and beneficial").
Kodansha Limited owns the Otowa Group, which manages subsidiary companies such asKing Records (official name: King Record Co., Ltd.) andKobunsha, and publishesNikkan Gendai, a daily tabloid. It also has close ties withDisney and officially sponsorsTokyo Disneyland.
Kodansha is the largest publisher in Japan.[citation needed] Revenues dropped due to the 2002recession in Japan and an accompanying downturn in thepublishing industry: the company posted a loss in the 2002 financial year for the first time since the end ofWorld War II. (The second-largest publisher,Shogakukan, has done relatively better. In the 2003 financial year, Kodansha had revenues of ¥167 billion compared to ¥150 billion for Shogakukan. Kodansha, at its peak, led Shogakukan by over ¥50 billion in revenue.)[citation needed]
Kodansha sponsors theKodansha Manga Award which has run since 1977 (and since 1960 under other names).[citation needed]
Kodansha's headquarters in Tokyo once housedNoma Dōjō, akendo practice-hall established by Seiji Noma in 1925. However, the hall was demolished in November 2007 and replaced with a dōjō in a new building nearby.
The company announced that it was closing its English-language publishing house, Kodansha International, at the end of April 2011.[4] Their American publishing house,Kodansha USA, will remain in operation.
Kodansha USA began issuing new publications under the head administrator of the international branch, Kentaro Tsugumi, starting in September 2012 with a hardcover release ofThe Spirit of Aikido.[5] Many of Kodansha USA's older titles have been reprinted. According to Daniel Mani of Kodansha USA, Inc., "Though we did stopped [sic] publishing new books for about a year starting from late 2011, we did continue to sell most of our older title throughout that period (so Kodansha USA never actually closed)."[citation needed]
In October 2016, Kodansha acquired publisherIchijinsha and turned the company into its wholly-owned subsidiary.[6]
On November 30, 2022, Kodansha announced an extended partnership withDisney to release anime originals based on its manga exclusively on video streaming serviceDisney+ starting with the second season ofTokyo Revengers.[7]
On March 21, 2023, Kodansha announced a manga distribution service called "K Manga" which was initially launched exclusively in the United States on May 10, 2023. It started approximately with 400 titles, of which 70 were simultaneous publications of ongoing series.[8] On October 21, 2024, it was announced that the service became available in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore;[9] on February 4, 2025, it was announced that the service had expanded to the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Mexico, and Brazil.[10]
On May 24, 2024, Kodansha announced that they acquired publisherWani Books and turned it into a wholly-owned subsidiary.[11]
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The Kodansha company holds ownership in various broadcasting companies in Japan. It also owns shares inNippon Cultural Broadcasting and Kobunsha. In the 2005 takeover-war forNippon Broadcasting System betweenLivedoor andFuji TV, Kodansha supported Fuji TV by selling its stock to Fuji TV.
Kodansha has a somewhat complicated relationship withNHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai), Japan'spublic broadcaster. Many of the manga and novels published by Kodansha have spawned anime adaptations. Animation such asCardcaptor Sakura, aired in NHK'sEisei Anime Gekijō time-slot, and Kodansha published a companion magazine to the NHK children's showOkāsan to Issho. The two companies often clash editorially, however. The October 2000 issue ofGendai accused NHK of staging footage used in a news report in 1997 ondynamite fishing in Indonesia. NHK sued Kodansha in the Tokyo District Court, which ordered Kodansha to publish a retraction and pay ¥4 million in damages. Kodansha appealed the decision and reached a settlement whereby it had to issue only a partial retraction and to pay no damages.[12][unreliable source?]Gendai's sister magazineShūkan Gendai nonetheless published an article probing further into the staged-footage controversy that has dogged NHK.
This is a list of manga magazines published by Kodansha.
Kodomo (children's) manga magazines
Shōnen manga magazines
Seinen manga magazines
Shōjo manga magazines
Josei manga magazines
Web magazines
Kodansha organizes the Miss iDpageant, which started in 2012. iD stands for "identity", "idol", "I", and "diversity", and it is described as a pageant to discover diverse role models for the "new era" without being bound to conventional beauty and lifestyle standards.Married andtransgender women are allowed to participate.[19][20][21] The Miss ID title is awarded to more than one person each year, and holders of the title include actressTina Tamashiro,[22] singerRie Kaneko,[23] and musicianEna Fujita.[24] Computer-generated character Saya and AI character Rinna were semifinalists in the 2018 pageant.[25]
Kodansha presents the following awards:
