| Shogakukan Inc. | |
| Native Name: | 株式会社 小学館 |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Romanized Name: | Kabushiki-gaisha Shōgakukan |
| Type: | Private KK |
| Founder: | Takeo Ōga |
| Industry: | Publishing |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Hq Location City: | Tokyo |
| Hq Location Country: | Japan |
| Key People: | [1] (President and CEO) |
| Products: | Magazines, comics, picture books, light novels, educational books, reference books, other books |
| Owner: | Hitotsubashi Group (Ōga family) |
| Num Employees: | 728 |
| Num Employees Year: | 2017 |
is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan.[2]
Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group,[3] one of the largest publishing groups in Japan and the world. Shogakukan is headquartered in the Shogakukan Building in Hitotsubashi, part of Kanda, Chiyoda, Tokyo, near the Jimbocho book district. The corporation also has the other two companies located in the same ward.
Shogakukan, along with Shueisha, owns Viz Media,[4] which publishes manga from both companies in the United States.
Shogakukan's licensing arm in North America was ShoPro Entertainment; it was merged into Viz Media in 2005.[5]
Shogakukan's production arm is Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions (previously Shogakukan Productions Co., Ltd.)
In March 2010 it was announced that Shogakukan would partner with the American comics publisher Fantagraphics to issue a line of manga to be edited by Rachel Thorn.[6]
In Europe, manga from Shōgakukan and Shūeisha are published by local publishers such as Pika Édition, Ki-oon, Kana and Kazé for the French market, and Kazé, Carlsen, Egmont and Tokyopop for the German market. Shogakukan, Shueisha and ShoPro have established a joint venture named Viz Media Europe.[7] Viz Media Europe bought in 2009 the French Kazé Group whose activities are mainly publishing manga and home video for the French and German market.[8]
The company has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Shogakukan Asia, with headquarter in Singapore. Besides producing popular titles in English such as Detective Conan, Pokémon and Future Card Buddyfight, the company also partners with local creators such as Johnny Lau to publish comic series for distribution in Southeast Asia.[9]
Shogakukan has awards for amateur manga artists who want to become professional. It allows people to either send in their manga by mail or bring it in to an editor.
On February 15, 2018, CoroCoro Comic ("Gekkan Corocoro Comic"), a children's magazine published by Shogakukan, had in its March issue a cartoon making fun of Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire. The comic showed a mischievous boy doodling juvenile things on pictures of famous people, such as a dog's face on a picture of Albert Einstein. Genghis Khan was depicted with a crude rendering of male genitalia on his forehead.[10] [11] After some backlash, Shogakukan initially offered an apology addressed to the Mongolian Embassy in Tokyo on February 23, but that failed to mollify Mongolian expats in Japan, who regard Genghis Khan as a national hero.[10]
On February 26, Mongolians and citizens of China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region resident in Japan sent a formal letter of protest to Shogakukan, while some 90 demonstrators protested in front of company headquarters.[10] Major bookselling chains Kinokuniya, Miraiya and Kumazawa pulled the publication off shelves after the Mongolian Embassy in Tokyo filed an official complaint with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[12] In March 2018, Shogakukan issued another public apology, announced a national recall of the magazine and offered a refund to magazine patrons.[13] CoroCoro Comic's website also published an apology by Asumi Yoshino, author of the serialized manga Yarisugi!!! Itazura-kun which contained the controversial image.[14]
Shogakukan produces (or makes part of the production of) anime based on their mangas, mostly through their subsidiary Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions.
, abbreviated TC, is the imprint used for tankōbon editions of manga series serialized in Monthly CoroCoro Comic and Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic magazines.[16]