Who owns Kadokawa Bunko?
Kadokawa Bunko is owned by Kadokawa (Japan, TSE: 9468).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: KADOKAWA Group — Group companies, KADOKAWA CORPORATION. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- KADOKAWA CORPORATION reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇯🇵 Japan, Tokyo
- Origin
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- Founded
- 1949
- Category
- Media & entertainment › Publishing › Book publishers
- Parent ticker
- TSE: 9468
- Last verified
- · 3 sources
About Kadokawa Bunko
Kadokawa Bunko is the paperback imprint at the centre of Kadokawa's literary publishing. Its first title, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, appeared in 1949, and a change to the smaller A6 format in 1950 set off what the company calls the first paperback boom in Japan. From 1976 Kadokawa began adapting its paperback titles into films.
Ownership timeline of Kadokawa Bunko
Where Kadokawa Bunko sits in Kadokawa
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Kadokawa ownership tree →
See the full Kadokawa brand portfolio (9) →
Other brands owned by Kadokawa
Kadokawa controls 9 brands on Brandtree, 3 of them in media & entertainment.
Also in media & entertainment
Other brands in book publishers, and who owns them
The 34 brands in book publishers on Brandtree belong to 9 owners. The largest is Lagardère, with 13.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Bragelonne | Lagardère | 🇫🇷 France |
| Bokfabriken | Storytel | 🇸🇪 Sweden |
| Clifford the Big Red Dog | Scholastic | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Macmillan Education | Springer Nature | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| Dummies | Wiley | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Penguin Books | Bertelsmann | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| Kids Can Press | Corus | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| HarperCollins | News Corp | 🇺🇸 United States |
About the owner: Kadokawa
Kadokawa is a publicly listed company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1945. Brandtree records 9 brands under its control, and it is listed as TSE: 9468.
Kadokawa is a Japanese entertainment group that began on 10 November 1945, when the literary scholar Genyoshi Kadokawa set up a publishing company. It moved into film in 1976 and combined with the internet company Dwango on 1 October 2014, the date of establishment of the present corporation. It now publishes more than 5,500 new titles a year, produces animation and live-action film, develops video games through FromSoftware, Spike Chunsoft and Acquire, runs the Niconico video service and operates schools. Its shares trade on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
🇯🇵 Kadokawa Bunko and other Japanese brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 437 brands that began in Japan. 21 of them (5%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Kadokawa Bunko is not one of them.
- Aggretsuko — Sanrio 🇯🇵
- BS Nippon — Nippon TV Holdings 🇯🇵
- Godzilla — TOHO 🇯🇵
- Gundam — Bandai Namco 🇯🇵
- NITRO PLUS — CyberAgent 🇯🇵
- T-Joy — Toei 🇯🇵
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Kadokawa Bunko?
The parent company of Kadokawa Bunko is Kadokawa, a publicly listed company headquartered in Japan.
Is Kadokawa Bunko Japanese?
Yes. Kadokawa Bunko originated in Japan in 1949 and its owner, Kadokawa, is also headquartered in Japan.
Is Kadokawa Bunko still owned by Kadokawa?
Yes. As of 4 October 2026, Kadokawa Bunko is still owned by Kadokawa. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (3) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] KADOKAWA Group — Group companies — KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Official document; retrieved 4 October 2026.
- [2] KADOKAWA Group — Business overview: Publication/IP creation — KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Official document; retrieved 4 October 2026.
- [3] KADOKAWA Group — Corporate history, 1945–1975 — KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Official document; retrieved 4 October 2026.
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