Kadokawa Corporation



Kadokawa Corporation (株式会社KADOKAWA), formerly Kadokawa Dwango Corporation, (カドカワ株式会社) is a Japanese media conglomerate that was created as a result of the merger of the original Kadokawa Corporation and Dwango Co., Ltd. on October 1, 2014.

History
The holding company known today as Kadokawa Corporation was originally founded in 1945 as Kadokawa Shoten, to "revitalize Japanese culture through publishing" in the postwar era. It was merged with Dwango Co., Ltd. to form Kadokawa Dwango on October 1, 2014, and became a subsidiary of Kadokawa Dwango.

In February 2019, Kadokawa Dwango announced that Dwango would stop being their subsidiary to be a direct subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation in a reorganization of the company. This made Kadokawa Corporation the sole subsidiary of the holding company Kadokawa Dwango.

On July 1, 2019, Kadokawa Dwango was reorganized again; only the publishing business remained in Kadokawa Corporation, and it was renamed Kadokawa Future Publishing, while Kadokawa Dwango itself became the second iteration of Kadokawa Corporation and the holding company of all of the Kadokawa Group companies. The original name Kadokawa Shoten remains as a brand and a division of Kadokawa Future Publishing.

On February 4, 2021, Kadokawa announced that the company had formed a Capital Alliance with Sony and CyberAgent to strengthen the company's creation, development, and acquisition of new IP while also maximizing use of existing IPs. As part of the agreement both Sony and CyberAgent would each receive a 1.93% stake in the company via American investment company of Japanese subsidiary, KKR Japan acquired a 12% stake.

On October 29, 2021, Kadokawa announced that it had formed a capital and business alliance with Tencent, which acquired a 6.86% stake in the conglomerate for ¥30 billion ($264 million). The aim of the alliance is for Kadokawa to expand its global reach using Tencent's platforms. China, where the company has an existing joint venture with Tencent, is a particular target.

In September 2022 chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa—son of founder Genyoshi—was arrested as part of a police investigation into bribery. Prosecutors alleged that the Kadokawa chairman authorized a ¥76 million payment (adjusted to ¥69 million under Japan's statute of limitations) to a consulting company with ties to a former executive of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee in exchange for being selected as an official sponsor of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. Kadokawa has denied the allegations, and his company announced that it would cooperate with the investigation. Kadokawa was indicted by prosecutors on October 4, 2022. Later that day he announced his intent to resign as the chairman of his company. He continued to deny the allegations and vowed to prove his innocence at trial. In July 2024, the company announced that it had acquired anime studio Doga Kobo.

2024 ransomware attack
On June 8, 2024, a group of hackers called BlackSuit launched a ransomware attack on multiple websites owned by Kadokawa, including the video streaming website Niconico, resulting in most of its services being temporarily suspended. On June 27, the hacker group published a statement on the dark web, claiming responsibility for the attack and threatening to release 1.5 terabytes of stolen data, which included business partner information and user data, unless a ransom was paid.

Group companies
Kadokawa Corporation serves to bring together several affiliated Japanese companies related to Kadokawa Shoten under what is known as the Kadokawa Group. These companies are of three types: publishing, film and visuals, and cross media. The publishers primarily deal with books, bunkobon paperbacks, manga, and visual media magazines; the film and visual companies deal with Japanese feature films and DVD sales of international films and anime; the cross media companies deal with digital content, urban information and television program information magazines, along with information transmission combining paper media, the Internet, and mobile phones. Other aspects of the group are handled by the other business segment which primarily takes care of video games, real estate leasing, and comprises an advertising agency.

Publication

 * BookWalker
 * GeeXPlus, Inc
 * Trista
 * Choubunsha Publishing Co.
 * Comic Walker
 * eb Creative
 * Japan Digital Library Service
 * Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories
 * Kadokawa Book Navi
 * Kadokawa Future Publishing
 * ASCII Media Works
 * Building Book Center
 * Chukei Publishing
 * Enterbrain
 * Fujimi Shobo
 * Kadokawa Gakugei Publishing
 * Kadokawa Key-Process
 * Kadokawa Magazines
 * Kadokawa Shoten
 * Media Factory
 * Kadokawa Game Linkage
 * Kadokawa Uplink
 * Mainichi GA Hakken
 * Production Ace

Group media

 * Dwango
 * Dehogallery
 * Dwango AG Entertainment
 * Dwango Music Publishing
 * FromNetworks
 * Niconico
 * Project Studio Q
 * Spike Chunsoft
 * Vaka
 * Vantan
 * Virtual Cast Co., Ltd.
 * Watanabe Amaduction
 * Docomo Anime Store
 * K.Sense (80%)
 * Kadokawa Media House
 * Kadokawa Uplink
 * Kids Net
 * Movie Walker
 * Movie Ticket
 * T Gate
 * Smile Edge

Films and visuals

 * Doga Kobo
 * ENGI (53%)
 * EuropaCorp Japan
 * Glovision
 * Japan Film Fund
 * Kadokawa Anime
 * Kadokawa Architecture
 * Kadokawa Daiei Studio
 * Globalgate Entertainment
 * Kinema Citrus (31.8%)
 * Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting
 * Movie Walker
 * Persol Media Switch (30%)
 * Studio Kadan

Others

 * Acquire
 * ATX
 * Anime Tourism Association
 * Chara-Ani Corporation
 * Customcast
 * C・P・S
 * FromSoftware (69.66%)
 * Gotcha Gotcha Games
 * Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories
 * Cool Japan Travel, Inc. (75%)
 * Kadokawa Architecture
 * Kadokawa Contents Academy
 * Kadokawa Connected
 * Kadokawa Craft
 * K's Lab
 * Karksa Media Partner Corporation (34%)
 * Page Turner
 * Production Ace
 * Tokorozawa Sakuratown Corporation

Overseas

 * Animate Oversea (joint venture under Kadokawa Taiwan with Animate and United Distribution Co.)
 * Bookwalker Taiwan
 * Guangzhou Tianwen Kadokawa Animation and Comics
 * Hemisphere Motion Picture Partners I
 * Hemisphere Motion Picture Partners II
 * Japan Manga Alliance (joint venture with Animate, Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan
 * Animate JMA (Thailand)
 * J-Novel Club
 * Kadokawa Amarin (joint venture with Amarin Group, marketed under the brand Phoenix Next)
 * Kadokawa Contents Academy
 * Kadokawa Hong Kong
 * Kadokawa Holdings Asia
 * J-Guide Marketing
 * Kadokawa Gempak Starz (Malaysia) (80%)
 * Kadokawa Holdings US
 * Kadokawa International Edutainment (Taiwan)
 * Kadokawa Pictures America
 * Kadokawa Taiwan Corporation
 * Kadokawa Consulting (Thailand)
 * Kadokawa Qingyu (Shanghai) Culture & Creation
 * Kadokawa World Entertainment (US)
 * Anime News Network
 * Phoenix Gramedia Indonesia (joint venture with Kompas Gramedia)
 * Sun Wah Kadokawa (Hong Kong) Group
 * Taiwan Animate
 * Yen Press (51%, co-owned with Hachette Book Group)

Former subsidiaries

 * Asmik Ace
 * Daihyakka News: Merged with Dwango in July 2019.
 * Kadokawa Entertainment: On November 1, 2009, Kadokawa Entertainment was merged into Kadokawa Pictures.
 * Kadokawa Group Publishing: On April 1, 2013, Kadokawa Group Publishing was merged into Kadokawa Group Holdings.
 * Kadokawa Games: In May 2022, Kadokawa Games divested its business into a separate company called Dragami Games, including its IPs.
 * Kadokawa J:COM Media: Established in November 2005 as a joint venture between Kadokawa Shoten and J:COM. It was eliminated in June 2010.
 * So-net Kadokawa Link: Established on June 27, 2007, with So-net Entertainment (43.5%), Kadokawa Mobile (43.5%), and Dentsu E-link (13.0%).
 * Kadokawa Mobile and Movie Gate: On October 1, 2009, Kadokawa Mobile merged with Movie Gate to form Kadokawa Contents Gate.
 * Kadokawa Production: On October 1, 2013, the company was dissolved and integrated in Kadokawa Corporation.
 * Mages: On July 12, 2019, Mages was acquired by Chiyomaru Studio, a concept and copyright company also headed by Mages CEO.
 * MediaLeaves: On January 10, 2010, MediaLeaves was merged into Enterbrain.
 * NTT Prime Square: On November 30, 2010, Fan service endedm joint venture with NTT.
 * Sarugakucho: Became part of Kadokawa Group Holdings under Enterbrain during the ASCII acquisition. On March 31, 2010, Pole To Win announced that it has acquired Sarugakucho.
 * Studio Lide: Closed in April 2019.
 * Words Gear: On September 26, 2006, Panasonic announced the establishment of Words Gear with Kadokawa Mobile and Tokyo Broadcasting System, effective on October 2, 2006. On September 30, 2010, Kadokawa Group Holdings announced merging Words Gear into Kadokawa Contents Gate, with Kadokawa Contents Gate as the surviving company, effective on January 1, 2011.