Sony Music Japan International
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Music |
| Founded | 1968 (as CBS/Sony Records Inc.) |
| Headquarters | Rokubancho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan |
|
Key people
|
Naoki Kitagawa, CEO and Representative to the RIAJ Masao Morita, Chairman |
| Revenue |
 ¥2,826 billion |
|
Number of employees
|
2,000 |
| Parent | Sony Corporation |
| Subsidiaries |
SME Records Epic Records Japan Ki/oon Music Sony Music Records Sony Music Associated Records Ariola Japan BMG Japan Sony Music Artists Sony Music Publishing mora Aniplex Music On! TV Sacra Music |
| Website | sonymusic.co.jp |
Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. (株式会社ソニー・ミュージックエンタテインメント Kabushiki gaisha Sonī Myūjikku Entateinmento), often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short, is Sony's music arm in Japan. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Corporation and independent from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry. Its subsidiaries including the Japanese animation production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in January 1997 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid '90s producing and licensing music for animated series such as Roujin Z from acclaimed Japanese comic artist Katsuhiro Otomo and Capcom's Street Fighter animated series.
Until March 2007, Sony Music Japan also had its own North American sublabel, Tofu Records. Releases of Sony Music Japan now appear on Columbia Records and/or Epic Records in North America.
Sony does not have the rights to Columbia name and trademark in Japan, so releases under Columbia Records from another country appears on Sony Records in Japan, but retains the usage of the "walking eye" logo. The Columbia name and trademark is controlled by Nippon Columbia, which was, in fact, the licensee for the American Columbia Records up until 1968, even though relations were officially severed as far back as World War II. Nippon Columbia also does not have direct relations with the British Columbia Graphophone Company (an EMI subsidiary), so the licensee for the British Columbia Graphophone Company was actually Toshiba Musical Industries.
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