The story
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 its 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 receive a 1.93% stake in the company.
By August 2021, Kakao Japan had acquired an 8.3% stake in Kadokawa, making it the largest shareholder at the time. 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 January 2024, Kadokawa announced that they've entered a partnership with Belgium publishing company Dupuis to acquire a 51% stake in the latter's manga imprint Vega Dupuis and had launched a joint venture business with Dupuis that could bring Kadokawa's own titles as well as publishing Japanese and Korean comics to the French market named Vega SAS with Dupuis retaining a 49% stake in the now joint venture imprint.
In July 2024, the company announced that it had acquired anime studio Doga Kobo.
In November 2024, it was reported that Sony Group Corporation was in talks to acquire Kadokawa. Sony, which had acquired shares in the company in 2021, had previously discussed acquiring Kadokawa outright, but was only interested in its anime and video game assets. However, Kadokawa insisted that acquisition offers encompass the entire company.
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On December 19, 2024, Sony announced a "strategic capital and business alliance" with Kadokawa, under which it acquired 12 million new shares for ¥50 billion ($320 million) on January 7, 2025, giving Sony a 10% stake and making it Kadokawa's largest single shareholder at the time. As part of the agreement, Kadokawa is set to collaborate with Sony on projects involving its IPs, including anime co-productions, live-action adaptations, and widening distribution.
In February 2025, Kadokawa announced that BookWalker and Kadokawa Connected would be transferred into Dwango, which took effect on April 1, 2025. This merger did not affect the activities of the merged companies, such as BookWalker, which retains with its brand and operations, but managed by Dwango. In May 2025, Kadokawa announced that it would acquire a 70% stake in Edizioni BD, an Italian manga publisher. Oasis Management acquired a 13.76% stake in the company in March 2026, making it the company's largest single shareholder. By June 2026, their share increased to 15.25%.
Arrest of chairman
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 Summer 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.
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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kadokawa Corporation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6