Kodansha (株式会社講談社, Kodansha Ltd.) is a major Japanese general publisher headquartered in Otowa, Bunkyō, Tokyo, and the core company of the Otowa Group of affiliated companies[2].
History
In November 1909, Seiji Noma founded Dai Nippon Yūbenkai, which began by publishing the debating magazine Yūben[2]. After launching Kōdan Kurabu in 1911, it used the name "Kodansha" alongside Dai Nippon Yūbenkai[2]. In January 1925 it was renamed Dai Nippon Yūbenkai Kōdansha; in December 1938 it was reorganised as a joint-stock company under the name Kabushiki Kaisha Dai Nippon Yūbenkai Kōdansha; and in 1958 it adopted its current name, Kabushiki Kaisha Kōdansha[2]. In 1933 the head office moved to Otowa-chō, Koishikawa-ku (now Otowa, Bunkyō)[2]. The presidency has been held successively by members of the Noma family; in 2011 Yoshinobu Noma became the seventh president[2].
Member companies of the Otowa Group include Kobunsha and King Records[2]. The company has kept expanding in recent years: it made Ichijinsha a wholly owned subsidiary in 2016 and Wani Books in 2024[2]; in 2023 it launched the manga distribution service K Manga, first in the United States, and by June 2025 the service had expanded to more than 30 countries[3].
Main business
The company publishes more than 30 magazines, including Weekly Shōnen Magazine, Morning, Shūkan Gendai and Gunzō; it also publishes literary books, manga, practical books and academic books, and runs a range of online media[2]. Books it has published include Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood and Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window[2]. It also organises awards including the Noma Literary Prize, the Eiji Yoshikawa Literary Prize, the Kodansha Manga Award and the Edogawa Rampo Prize[2]. Since the 1950s it has held book publishing rights to Walt Disney Company characters, and it is an official sponsor of Tokyo Disney Resort[2].
The collected volumes of Chiikawa have been published under its Wide KC Morning imprint since 12 February 2021, reaching volume 8 by November 2025[1]. Manga publishing and character licensing for the work are handled by different parties: publishing belongs to Kodansha, while outward licensing of the characters is handled by the rights management company SpiralCute Inc.[1].
Business performance
Kodansha ranks with Shogakukan and Shueisha among the major companies of the Japanese publishing industry; its revenue exceeded ¥200 billion in the late 1990s, it recorded its first postwar loss in 2002, and its e-book and rights revenue has grown rapidly since 2015[2]. For the fiscal year ended November 2025, revenue was ¥169.1 billion and net profit ¥11.1 billion; it had 972 employees as of April 2025[2]. Its principal shareholder is the Noma Cultural Foundation, a general incorporated foundation (39.2%)[2].