KADOKAWA

Kadokawa Corporation is a prominent Japanese media conglomerate.

Founded on November 10, 1945 by literary scholar and poet Genyoshi Kadokawa (角川 源義) as Kadokawa Shoten, the company is involved in a wide range of entertainment sectors, not just light novels. Initially, it engaged mainly in publications of Japan's national history and literature, but has since expanded into film, television, anime, video games, manga, light novels, magazines, online and streaming services, merchandise, and even a museum.

On October 1, 2014 Kadokawa Shoten merged with Dwango (owner of video-sharing site Niconico and video game company Spike Chunsoft) to become Kadokawa Dwango. It was reorganized twice in 2019 and renamed Kadokawa Corporation.

The company responsible for publishing light novels (as well as other print media) is Kadokawa Future Publishing. Other notable companies or properties owned, partly or wholly, by Kadokawa are video game company FromSoftware, pop culture magazine Newtype, e-book store Bookwalker, light novel publishers Yen Press (co-owned with Hachette Book Group) and J-Novel Club, and anime news website Anime News Network.