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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.[3] 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.[citation needed] 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.)[citation needed]
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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]
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.[7]
On March 21, 2023, Kodansha announced a manga distribution service called "K Manga" which was initially launched exclusively in the United States on May 10, 2023. It started approximately with 400 titles, of which 70 were simultaneous publications of ongoing series.[8] On October 21, 2024, it was announced that the service became available in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.[9]
On May 24, 2024, Kodansha announced that they acquired publisher Wani Books and turned it into a wholly-owned subsidiary.[10]
The Kodansha company holds ownership in various broadcasting companies in Japan. It also owns shares in Nippon Cultural Broadcasting and Kobunsha. In the 2005 takeover-war for Nippon Broadcasting System between Livedoor and Fuji TV, Kodansha supported Fuji TV by selling its stock to Fuji TV.
NHK
Kodansha has a somewhat complicated relationship with NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai), Japan's public broadcaster. Many of the manga and novels published by Kodansha have spawned anime adaptations. Animation such as Cardcaptor Sakura, aired in NHK's Eisei Anime Gekijō time-slot, and Kodansha published a companion magazine to the NHK children's show Okāsan to Issho. The two companies often clash editorially, however. The October 2000 issue of Gendai accused NHK of staging footage used in a news report in 1997 on dynamite fishing in Indonesia. NHK sued Kodansha in the Tokyo District Court, which ordered Kodansha to publish a retraction and pay ¥4 million in damages. Kodansha appealed the decision and reached a settlement whereby it had to issue only a partial retraction and to pay no damages.[11][unreliable source?]Gendai's sister magazine Shūkan Gendai nonetheless published an article probing further into the staged-footage controversy that has dogged NHK.
Kodansha organizes the Miss iD pageant, which started in 2012. iD stands for "identity", "idol", "I", and "diversity", and it is described as a pageant to discover diverse role models for the "new era" without being bound to conventional beauty and lifestyle standards. Married and transgender women are allowed to participate.[18][19][20] The Miss ID title is awarded to more than one person each year, and holders of the title include actress Tina Tamashiro,[21] singer Rie Kaneko,[22] and musician Ena Fujita.[23] Computer-generated character Saya and AI character Rinna were semifinalists in the 2018 pageant.[24]
Awards given
Kodansha presents the following awards:
The Noma Prize for Literature
The Noma Literary Prize for New Writers
The Noma Literary Prize for Children’s Literature
The Noma Publishing Cultural Prize
The Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature
The Yoshikawa Eiji Bunko Prize
The Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers
The Yoshikawa Eiji Cultural Prize
The Kodansha Manga Awards
The Kodansha Honda Yasuharu Non-Fiction Award
The Kodansha Science Publication Award
The Kodansha Picture Book Award
The Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature
^"Miss iDって？". ミスiD (in Japanese). Archived from the original on May 30, 2022. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
^"Miss iD". Japanese kawaii idol music culture news | Tokyo Girls Update. November 2017. Archived from the original on August 16, 2022. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
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