Kadokawa Shoten

Company Information & Key Figures

About

The Kadokawa Group, which aims to become a “Mega Software Publisher” (AR), is moving beyond its existing publishing business, and is working to achieve sustainable growth by expanding its business domains in the movie/visual business and the internet-related business (which includes websites and mobile-friendly sites) and by developing business overseas with an emphasis on Asia. (AR 2011)

On October 1, 2014, Kadokawa Corporation and Dwango integrated to form Kadokawa Dwango Corporation as the holding company for both businesses. Kadokawa Shoten is a well-established Japanese publisher of books, manga and manga magazines. The company was established on November 10, 1945 by Genyoshi Kadokawa. Its first publication imprint, Kadokawa Bunko, was published in 1949. Kadokawa Shoten went public on April 2, 1954. In 2003, Kadokawa Shoten was renamed to Kadokawa Holdings, transferring the existing publishing businesses to Kadokawa Shoten.

On July 1, 2006, the parent company was renamed to Kadokawa Group Holdings and inherited the management and integration businesses within Kadokawa Shoten. In January 2007, Kadokawa Group Holdings inherited the management and integration businesses within Kadokawa Shoten. The magazine businesses were transferred to the Kadokawa Magazine Group. The video game divisions of Kadokawa Shoten, ASCII Media Works and Enterbrain were merged into Kadokawa Games. Since the founding of Kadokawa Haruki in 1976, Kadokawa was also active in movie production.

In fall 2013, Kadokawa restructured, based on a new “one company” concept, integrating nine subsidiaries, becoming Kadokawa Corporation, and installing a new corporate executive. In April 2015, Kodowaka announced to continue its restructuring process and to resolve the brand name of Kadokawa Shoten and others. Its editorial staff will be consolidated in a new department structure.

Analysis & Key Developments

Update: The company’s publishing revenue, regarding the fiscal year ending in March 2018 declined not considerably by 0.28% and totaled to 112,691mYen.

Financial

In 2017, results slightly improved in both revenue and operating income. Therefore the Kadokawa’s publishing revenues increased by 7.43% to 113,012mYen and the operating income amounted to 8,342mYen, with particularly the paper book business driving the publications division. “The brand integration of KADOKAWA as a major publisher has increased the Company’s pricing power in distribution and in the copyright business.” (company information, AR 2017)

Internal organization
Acquisitions and growth initiatives in publishing

• In 2017 the company launched the literary information site “Kadobun”, which provides content such as artist interviews, book reviews, special feature projects, etc. (company information)
• Furthermore, COOL JAPAN TRAVEL, INC. was established in 2017, as a subsidiary of KADOKAWA ASCII RESEARCH. Amongst other things, the company offers pilgrimage-tours for fans of Kadokawa’s various animation and manga titles, including various parts of Japan with the aim of regional revitalization. (company information)

Digital

Kadokawa is increasingly aiming at an exploitation of its intellectual property (IP), defined as „original works“, across media, in both analog and and digital formats, which encompasses video, games, character development (as ‚experiences‘), or web offerings such as Niconico, Japan’s most popular platform for video uploads (as an equivalent to Youtube).

In an extension of this strategy of IP development, Kadokawa has recently started targeting the Chinese mainland market through its branch of Shanghai Kadokawa.

According to the company, both e-books and e-magazines continued to perform well during financial 2017 and 2018, reflecting growth in the market and efficient campaigns. (AR 2017, AR 2018)