ShoPro

June 17, 2008
Shogakukan Inc.
Shueisha Inc.
Shogakukan Production Co., Ltd

The second stage of the global strategy!
To enhance the production functions of Hitotsubashi Group
The establishment of Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd.

Shogakukan Production Co., Ltd (Head office: Chiyoda-ku; President and Representative Director, Masao Yagi), which is a subsidiary of Shogakukan Inc. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku; President and Representative Director: Masahiro Ohga) accepts an investment from Shueisha Inc. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku; President and Representative Director: Hideki Yamashita). Therefore, Shogakukan Production’s new corporate name is changed to “Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions and will begin to strengthen its business in developing characters & contents business more than ever. The three companies jointly established the Multi-media entertainment company, VIZ Ｍｅｄｉａ, in USA and it has already shown successful results. Utilizing viable contents and attractive characters,　we are aiming to make dramatic progress in our national and global strategy in this business sector.

In April, 2005, Shogakukan, Shueisha and Shogakukan Production jointly established VIZ Media, headquartered in San Francisco California, to strengthen the presence of Japanese characters and contents abroad. VIZ Media actively engaged in publishing an English version of the most popular Japanese magazine “Shonen Jump” in addition to translating comic books. VIZ Media also actively licensed animation for broadcast as well as licensing for character merchandise, leading to form a large market for Japanese characters and contents in the USA.

In order to advance our future global strategy and the business applications of characters & contents in Japan, Shogakukan Production, a subsidiary to Shogakukan, accepts an investment from Shueisha and in order to enhance the production functions of the Hitotsubashi Group. By changing its corporate name to Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, and inviting executives from Shueisha to form a new management team.
It is said that publishing industry is facing difficult times, however, owing to the emergence of the digital era, it also has hidden potential to expand the characters & contents business. Shogakukan and Shueisha, the two largest companies which handle major contents business in Japan, will fully utilize the production functions which Shogakukan Production has, and actively develop future business operations, not only by utilizing characters in diverse ways, but also expanding the business derived directly from the comic sector.
Furthermore, the advance in globalization of our business will contribute to the growing global presence of the Japanese culture known as “manga”.
Going forward, Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions will expand its publishing business abroad primarily through VIZ Media, but also work on producing animation movies and live-action films, producing and planning TV programs, commercializing digital images, and the merchandising and managing of the character & content licensing business. We strongly believe that the collaboration between our companies will enhance our strengths.

In 2007, VIZ Media achieved annual sales up to 10 billion yen. Last year VIZ Media established VIZ Media Europe, based in Paris, and just recently established a new design company which would support its marketing and merchandising in New York last April. In additiona to this, VIZ Media will also open a new office in　Los Angeles this month with the aim to expand into Hollywood.