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= ALC Press Inc. =

ALC PRESS INC. (株式会社アルク) is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda-ward,Tokyo. It operates correspondence courses, publishes teaching materials, and provides language-related web services, with a focus on English. The company name is an acronym for "Associated Liberal Creators." In addition to English, the company also offers courses in Chinese, and EFL teacher training courses for children and adults. Also, it holds TOEIC training and other seminars throughout Japan for both general learners and teachers. It also publishes many printed materials and apps for non-native learners of English and Japanese.

History
ALC Press traces back its history to 1969. Around that time it launched a monthly magazine for learning English known as the ENGLISH JOURNAL. Originally a printed monthly publication, since January 2023 it has been an online journal. In 1982, it also launched a monthly magazine-style communication lecture series known as "1000 Hour Hearing Marathon". Moreover, in 1991 it began developing training materials for overseas study consultants.

Its Kikutan English series, first released in 2005, became a bestseller with a total circulation of over 4.5 million copies by 2019. . In 2000 it launched an online English-Japanese and English dictionary database known as "English Cilang" (英辞朗), 　a free version of which is available from its website.

Although, ALC was briefly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in 2012 it was delisted. From 2012 to 2018 the Nippon Mirai Capital Co. Ltd. managed this company. On September 2018 it became a subsidiary of FreeBit.

It has established a study abroad center to provide study abroad support services for elementary, junior high, and high school students.

Acknowledgement

 * This article is based in part on the Japanese Wikipedia article on ALC Press.