『Kodansha』

Kodansha Ltd.

(Japanese: 株式会社講談社, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Kōdansha) is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo.

Kodansha publishes the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, Weekly Shōnen Magazine, and Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, as well as the more literary magazines Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese 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.

History

Seiji Noma founded Kodansha in 1910 as a spin-off of the Dai-Nippon Yūbenkai(大日本雄辯會,"Greater Japan Oratorical Society") and produced the literary magazine, Yūben,(雄辯) as its first publication.

The name Kodansha(taken from Kōdan Club(講談倶楽部), a now-defunct magazine published by the company) originated in 1911 when the publisher formally merged with the Dai-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 as King Records(official name: King Record Co., Ltd. ) and Kobunsha, and publishes Nikkan Gendai, a daily tabloid.

It also has close ties with Disney and officially sponsors Tokyo Disneyland.

Kodansha is the largest publisher in Japan.

Revenues dropped due to the 2002 recession in Japan and an accompanying downturn in the publishing industry: the company posted a loss in the 2002 financial year for the first time since the end of World 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.)

Kodansha sponsors the prestigious Kodansha Manga Award which has run since 1977(and since 1960 under other names).

Kodansha's headquarters in Tokyo once housed Noma Dōjō, a kendo 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.

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 of The Spirit of Aikido.

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 publisher Ichijinsha and turned the company into its wholly-owned subsidiary.

On November 30, 2022, Kodansha announced an extended partnership with Disney to release anime originals based on its manga exclusively on video streaming service Disney+ starting with the second season of Tokyo Revengers.

On March 21, 2023, Kodansha announced a manga distribution service called"K Manga" which will initially launch exclusively in the United States on May 10, 2023.

The service will consist of approximately 400 titles, of which 70 are simultaneous publications of ongoing series.

On May 24, 2024, Kodansha announced that they acquired publisher Wani Books and turned it into a wholly-owned subsidiary.