Kodansha

Kodansha is a privately held Japanese publishing and music company headquartered in the Bunkyo district of Tokyo. Seiji Noma founded it in 1909 as a spin-off of the Dai-Nippon Yubenkai, the Greater Japan Oratorical Society, and its first publication was the literary magazine Yuben; the name Kodansha comes from the magazine Kodan Club and dates from the 1911 merger with the society. The company publishes manga magazines such as Nakayoshi, Weekly Shonen Magazine and Weekly Young Magazine, the literary and news magazines Gunzo and Shukan Gendai, and the dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. Its source describes it as the largest publisher in Japan. Members of the Noma family still own it, directly or through the Noma Cultural Foundation, and its group includes subsidiaries such as King Records, Kobunsha and Ichijinsha.