Kodansha's current logo
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Founded | December 1, 1938 |
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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 |
No. of employees | 914 (as of September 2013) |
Official website | www |
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).