The story
Founded by Ichizō Kobayashi on Aug 8, 1932, in Tokyo.1
Toho was created by the founder of the Hankyu Railway, Ichizō Kobayashi, in 1932 as the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theatre Company (株式会社東京宝塚劇場, Kabushiki gaisha Tōkyō Takarazuka Gekijō). It managed much of the kabuki in Tokyo and, among other properties, the eponymous Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre and the Imperial Garden Theater in Tokyo; Toho and Shochiku enjoyed a duopoly over theaters in Tokyo for many years.
Labor disputes (1946–1948)
After the end of World War II, the new Occupation government allowed and encouraged the formation of labor unions, which had been banned under the Imperial government. During a general strike of film studio employees beginning in October 1946, a group of Toho's ten top stars led by Denjiro Okochi split from the main Toho union along with 445 employees. During the resolution of the strike, a closed-shop provision with the main union led to the establishment of the Shintoho Company, which comprised the members of the dissenting union and former Toho facilities.
The loss of major stars led to the hiring and training of new stars, including Toshiro Mifune. The contract made after the strike stipulated that Toho would only produce films approved by a committee that included union members, which led to filmmakers gaining unprecedented creative and productive control over their films. While Toho produced only thirteen films in 1947, six Toho films, including One Wonderful Sunday, directed by Akira Kurosawa, were ranked among the best ten films of the year in Kinema Junpo. However, each film had double or triple the budget of films produced by other studios, and the company suffered severe losses.
In 1948, the new Toho president Tetsuzo Watanabe ordered a return of the wartime quota of 24 films per year and the end of control over production by the union. In April, Toho management announced the dismissal of 1200 employees, with the aim of both cutting expenses and eliminating Communist leaders from the union. Negotiations failed and the union occupied the studio on April 15, joined by activists from the Japan Communist Party and other organizations, erecting barricades and closing the main gates.
On August 13, the Tokyo District Court decided in Toho's favor, and on the morning of August 19, a district police chief arrived at the front gate to read out the court decision. Two thousand policemen surrounded the studio, reinforced by soldiers, three airplanes, and several armored cars and tanks sent by the U.S. Eighth Army. The union leaders agreed to end their occupation on the condition the union was not disbanded.
Toho was severely weakened after the strikes and produced only four films in 1948 and five films in 1949, and continued to distribute Shintoho films until the end of 1949.
International expansion (1953–present)
In May 1953, Toho established Toho International, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary intended to target North American and Latin American markets. Seven Samurai was among the first films offered for foreign sales.
Toho and Shochiku competed with the influx of Hollywood films and boosted the film industry by focusing on new directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Kon Ichikawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Ishirō Honda, and Kaneto Shindo.
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After several successful film exports to the United States during the 1950s through Henry G. Saperstein, Toho took over the La Brea Theatre in Los Angeles to show its films without the need to sell them to a distributor. It was known as the Toho Theatre from the late 1960s until the 1970s. Toho also had a theater in San Francisco and opened a theater in New York City in 1963. The Shintoho Company, which existed until 1961, was named New Toho because it broke off from the original company. Toho has contributed to the production of some American films, including Sam Raimi's 1998 film, A Simple Plan and Paul W. S. Anderson's 2020 military science fiction/kaiju film, Monster Hunter.
In 2019, Toho invested ¥15.4 billion ($14 million) into its Los Angeles-based subsidiary Toho International Inc. as part of its "Toho Vision 2021 Medium-term Management Strategy", a strategy to increase content, platform, real-estate, beat JPY50 billion profits, and increase character businesses on Toho intellectual properties such as Godzilla. Hiroyasu Matsuoka was named the representative director of the US subsidiary.
In 2020, Toho acquired a 34.8% stake in the animation studio TIA, with ILCA and Anima each retaining a 32.6% stake. In 2022, Toho acquired Anima's 32.6% stake to take a controlling 67.4% stake in TIA, making the studio a subsidiary, and ultimately renaming the studio into Toho Animation Studios.
In October 2023, Toho's non-Japanese and Asian subsidiaries were split into Toho Global, a standalone subsidiary. In December, Toho announced its intent to acquire a 25% stake in Fifth Season for $225 million via Toho International. Following the completion of the deal, Fifth Season will be valued at $900 million; CJ ENM will remain the majority shareholder in the company, with former owner Endeavor also continuing to serve as a strategic shareholder. CEOs Graham Taylor and Chris Rice stated that this investment would empower the company to continue the expansion of its premium slate and create opportunities for collaboration between Fifth Season, Toho and CJ ENM to produce global content as well as content produced in Japan.
Following the success of Godzilla Minus One as its first self-distributed film in the U.S., Toho declared in March 2024 that Godzilla is its "Intellectual property (IP) treasure" and it had regained retailing rights overseas (which were once abandoned), and now can sell, advertise, and distribute its own products to consumers outside Japan directly. The company also said that the film winning Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards is helping them gain more recognition and advancing more business extension overseas.
In April 2025, Toho announced plans to invest ¥15 billion ($105 million) into Godzilla, including a Godzilla Minus One sequel, video games, merchandise, and amusement park attractions, as part of a larger ¥120 billion ($830 million) investment into expanding its film and anime projects. On 19 December, Toho announced the acquisition of Scottish-based distributor Anime Limited from Plaion Pictures for an undisclosed amount, with the company becoming a subsidiary of a newly-formed European branch of Toho Global, expanding Toho's operations to the United Kingdom and France. As part of the deal, Toho Global appointed Plaion Pictures as its exclusive distributor for most of Europe, including Germany and Italy. On the same day, Toho Global also announced that it would open up a London-based office at the end of the year.
In September 2025, following the successful releases of Japanese blockbuster films Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, Kokuho, and Exit 8, Toho, via Toho-Towa signed a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Pictures to release its titles in Japan.
From Wikipedia’s article on Toho, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5