KADOKAWA CORPORATION

KADOKAWA CORPORATION
General information
Key people	Takeshi Natsuno (Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO)
Founded	October 1, 2014 (current iteration)
Status	Active
Location	2-13-3 Fujimi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Service	Entertainment (publishing, video, games, web services, education, education technology)
Products	Tsunose Kotone
Affiliation	DWANGO Co., Ltd. AI, Inc. Yamaha Corporation
Website	https://www.kadokawa.co.jp/

KADOKAWA CORPORATION (株式会社KADOKAWA, Kabushiki Gaisha KADOKAWA), formerly KADOKAWA DWANGO Corporation (株式会社KADOKAWA・DWANGO or カドカワ株式会社, KADOKAWA DWANGO Corporation) is an entertainment company based in the Fujimi district of Chiyoda, Tokyo in Japan. It is best known for publishing manga and light novels (through divisions of its subsidiary Kadokawa Future Publishing) like Cowboy Bebop, Haruhi Suzumiya, Konosuba, and Neon Genesis Evangelion (among others) as well as producing films and anime (through Kadokawa Pictures) and publishing video games (through Kadokawa Games); some of the manga and novels have received English translations through Yen Press, which itself is a joint venture between KADOKAWA and American publishing company Hachette Book Group.

One of KADOKAWA's subsidiaries, DWANGO Co., Ltd., is the operator behind Japan's second largest broadcasting and video sharing website, Nico Nico Douga. Another of its subsidiaries, Kadokawa World Entertainment, Inc., is the current owner of Anime News Network.

Another KADOKAWA subsidiary, G's Koeken (G’sこえけん, G's Koeken), collaborated with AI, Inc. to create the character Tsunose Kotone, who debuted online in October 2022, was released in May 2023 as a text-to-speech library for the A.I.VOICE engine (later receiving an update for A.I.VOICE2 in August 2024), and is now planning a crowdfund campaign for a VOCALOID6 singing voicebank through Yamaha Corporation's VOCALOID FAN-ding initiative (launched in December 2025). G's Koeken is the audio-focused label of Dengeki G's Magazine, a now-defunct bishōjo magazine published by yet another KADOKAWA subsidiary division, ASCII Media Works; Tsunose Kotone's web-radio series KotoRadio is operated by G's Channel (G’sチャンネル, G's Channel), a web-media service owned by DWANGO which acts as the successor to Dengeki G's Magazine since the latter's discontinuation in 2022.

About

KADOKAWA describes itself as "a comprehensive entertainment company engaged in publishing, anime and live-action video, games, web services, education, and EdTech" (education technology). The company strives to "discover talent worldwide to create diverse intellectual property (IP) and deploy it across various media" and "pursue a 'Global Media Mix with Technology' strategy, leveraging technology to deliver" their "created IP globally and maximize IP value."

Key people

Takeshi Natsuno (夏野 剛, Takeshi Natsuno) is a Japanese businessman, serving as Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KADOKAWA CORPORATION since June 2021, as well as President and CEO of its subsidiary DWANGO Co., Ltd. (since February 2019) and Director of the KADOKAWA DWANGO Educational Foundation. Hailing from the Kanagawa Prefecture, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He joined NTT DoCoMo in 1997, where he was responsible for the business development of the i-mode mobile internet service, which was launched in Japan two years later on February 22, 1999. He left NTT in June 2009 to join DWANGO the following month as a full-time advisor, then in December became Director there; his biggest achievement there was bringing Nico Nico Douga to profitability, which was achieved in 2010. Facebook (@tnatsu) Nico Nico Channel (@natsuno) Twitter (@tnatsu; personal account) Twitter (@natsunoqa; Nico Nico Channel official account) Wikipedia (jp)

History

Origins as Kadokawa Shoten

KADOKAWA traces its origins back to November 10, 1945, when Kadokawa Shoten (角川書店, Kadokawa Shoten) was founded by Genyoshi Kadokawa (角川源義, Genyoshi Kadokawa) in Tokyo's Itabashi ward to "revitalize Japanese culture through publishing" in the postwar era. After moving office to Daikan in the Chiyoda ward in 1947, it began to publish its first publication imprint, Kadokawa Bunko, in 1949. After relocating again in 1950 (this time to the Fujimi district), the publisher became a public stock company or kabushiki gaisha in April 1954, under the name Kadokawa Shoten Co., Ltd. (株式会社角川書店, Kadokawa Shoten Co., Ltd.). Following Genyoshi's death in 1975, his son Haruki Kadokawa (角川春樹, Haruki Kadokawa), who was Editor-in-Chief at the moment, succeeded him as president of the company.

Under his tenure, the company expanded into films (1976), music (circa 1978), and television (1982), often adapting past printed works into movies or TV series along the way. In 1984, its headquarters was moved to Agabacho in Shinjuku, Tokyo; in 1988, it was again moved, to a new building at Hongo in Tokyo's Bunkyo ward. In 1993, it absorbed and merged several affiliated companies, turning them into its subsidiaries. Following his arrest for drug smuggling in August, Haruki stepped down in September, leaving his position as President and Representative Director to his younger brother Tsuguhiko Kadokawa (角川歴彦, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa) in October.

Under the new leadership, the company delved into the World Wide Web, digital content, and broadband, thus becoming a "mega content provider" in the process. In October 1995, it relocated again its headquarters, this time to a new building at its current location in Fujimi. In June 2002, Tsuguhiko became the company's Chairman and CEO, transferring the titles of President and Representative Director to Mineo Fukuda (福田峰夫, Mineo Fukuda) while Akio Honma (本間明生, Akio Honma) became Senior Managing Director.

Rebranding to Kadokawa Holdings

Kadokawa Shoten was renamed to Kadokawa Holdings Co., Ltd. (株式会社角川ホールディングス, Kadokawa Holdings Co., Ltd.) in April 2003 and became a holding company (retaining the name Kadokawa Shoten for a new second-generation company to which the publishing business was transferred); Tsuguhiko became the new parent company's President and CEO. In April 2005, he became Chairman and CEO and appointed Honma as the new President and Chief Operations Officer (COO).

In July 2006, the company was again renamed, to Kadokawa Group Holdings Co., Ltd. (株式会社角川グループホールディングス, Kadokawa Group Holdings Co., Ltd.). In January 2007, it split subsidiary Kadokawa Shoten (2nd gen.) into three major entities, Kadokawa Shoten, Inc. (third-generation), Kadokawa Magazine Group Co., Ltd., and Kadokawa Group Publishing Co., Ltd., while the parent itself absorbed Shoten's management and integration businesses. In April 2008, Tatsuo Sato (佐藤辰男, Tatsuo Sato) became the new President, Representative Director, and COO in place of Honma, while Tsuguhiko still remained as Chairman and CEO. In October 2010, a comprehensive business partnership with DWANGO Co., Ltd. was announced for distributing e-books and various forms of digital content; both companies would again collaborate in May 2011 in the form of a business alliance which also included a capital alliance.

Reorganization into KADOKAWA CORP.

On June 22, 2013, the parent company rebranded to KADOKAWA Corporation. On October 1, it absorbed and merged its nine subsidiaries (including 3rd-gen. Kadokawa Shoten), ending their statuses as kabushiki gaisha and reducing eight of them to just brand companies (while dissolving altogether Kadokawa Production, the ninth subsidiary). It also adopted the phoenix logo used by most of its consolidated subsidiaries as its new corporate logo. On October 25, it launched the digital comic magazine Mille Feuille (ミルフィ, Mille Feuille) for girls, which contained comics featuring VOCALOIDs.

In April 2014, Masaki Matsubara (松原眞樹, Masaki Matsubara) was appointed as the company's new President and Representative Director. On May 14, it signed a merger with DWANGO, which was consummated on October 1 with the founding of KADOKAWA DWANGO Corporation as the new parent holding company, with both KADOKAWA and DWANGO becoming its group subsidiaries. Exactly one year later on October 1, 2015, the merged company changed its Japanese trade name from Kabushiki Gaisha KADOKAWA DWANGO (株式会社KADOKAWA・DWANGO) to KADOKAWA Kabushiki Gaisha (カドカワ株式会社).

In June 2019, Koichi Sekiya (関谷幸一, Koichi Sekiya) became the new Director of KADOKAWA DWANGO. In July, the company structure was again reorganized, with the parent adopting its current name KADOKAWA CORPORATION while the KADOKAWA group subsidiary became an intermediate holding company named Kadokawa Future Publishing Co., Ltd. (株式会社KADOKAWA Future Publishing, Kadokawa Future Publishing Co., Ltd.) with Sekiya as its new President and Representative Director (while still retaining his position as Director of the parent company).

In October 2020, Sekiya adopted the roles of Executive Officer, Chief Experience Officer (CXO), Chief Manufacturing & Logistics Officer (CMLO), and Head of BEC Promotion Office at KADOKAWA CORP., which was also abolishing its headquarters system and reorganizing its entire structure into 13 domain-based groups. On June 22, 2021, Takeshi Natsuno replaced Sekiya as President and Representative Director of the parent company; in July, the structure was again reorganized, from 13 domains to 11. On August 30, Dengeki G's Magazine, a bishōjo magazine published by KADOKAWA Future Publishing division ASCII Media Works, launched its audio-focused label, "G's Koeken: G's Voice Activity Research Group" (G’sこえけん～G’s音声活動研究会～, "G's Koeken: G's Voice Activity Research Group"); the following year, this specific label served as the host for launching the digital activities of the character Tsunose Kotone, who first debuted on October 21, 2022 on Twitter (after being initially teased as an unnamed silhouette on September 30, when AI, Inc. had announced its new collaboration with a then-unidentified company, which would eventually be revealed to be KADOKAWA's "G's Koeken").

On September 14, KADOKAWA Chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa was arrested for bribery related to the corruption scandal surrounding the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games; he, along with Vice-Chairman Masaki Matsubara, resigned from their positions on October 4 and 5 respectively. Naoto Nakamura (中村直人, Naoto Nakamura) assumed the role of Chairman as a consequence, while Pres. and Rep. Dir. Natsuno added to himself the titles of Director, Representative Executive Officer (REO), and CEO on June 22, 2023 (after Kadokawa and Matsubara resigned from their Director roles on November 4, 2022 and March 31, 2023 respectively), positions that he still holds to this day.

Voicebanks

VOCALOID6 (Announced)

Tsunose Kotone

External links

Parent company

• Official Website
• Wikipedia (en)
• Wikipedia (jp)

Subsidiaries

• Dengeki G's magazine Official Website via Wayback Machine (October 26, 2022 archive of defunct website)
• G's Koeken Official Website
• G's Channel Official Website
• G's Channel Official Twitter Account (@gs_magazine; originally Dengeki G's magazine official Twitter)
• G's Koeken Official YouTube Channel (@Gs-qe5mb; originally Dengeki G's magazine official YouTube channel)