Kōdansha

Kodansha Ltd.
株式会社講談社

Kodansha's current logo
Founded	December 1, 1938
Founder	Seiji Noma
Country of origin	Japan
Headquarters location	Bunkyō, Tokyo
Key people	Yoshinobu Noma (President & CEO)
Publication types	books, magazines, manga, music CDs and DVDs (through King Records)
Imprints	King Record Co., Ltd. Kobunsha Co., Ltd. Kodansha Comics USA
Number of employees	914 (as of September 2013)
Official website	www.kodansha.co.jp

Kodansha Ltd. (株式会社講談社, Kabushiki-gaisha Kōdansha^?) is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo. The Noma family (relatives of the founder) continue as owners of Kodansha.

Seiji Noma founded Kodansha in 1909 as a spin-off of the Dai-Nippon Yūbenkai (Greater Japan Oratorical Society) and produced the literary magazine Yūben as its first publication. The name Kodansha (taken from "Kōdan Club," 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^?).