Warner Music Japan Inc. is a Japanese record company and talent agency under the United States-based Warner Music Group.
As of 2025, it is one of Japan's major record companies and, among major foreign-affiliated record companies based in Japan, has the second-longest history after Universal Music LLC.
On This Label
Released or manufactured by Warner Music Japan, from this catalogue:
- Versailles - Live Best - Versailles, released March 27, 2013 (
WPBL-90216). A&R (Masanori Hirokawa), Copyright (c), Executive Producer (Kei Ishizaka), Manufactured By, Miscellaneous Jobs (Yukari Iwasa), Products Coordination (Tetsuya Watanabe), Releasing Label, Sales Promotion (Yasuhiro Hayashi), Supervising Producer (Kiyoshi Yoshihara). - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu no Magical Wonder Castle - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, released June 11, 2014 (
WPXL-90072). Copyright (c), Digital Planning (Noriko Ohara), Executive Producers (Kaz Kobayashi), Executive Producers (Kei Ishizaka), Executive Producers (Shuji Utsumi), Manufactured By, Products Coordination (Masayo Kuroda), Products Coordination (Tadashi Matsuyama), Products Coordination (Tetsuya Watanabe), Releasing Label, Sales Promotion (Nao Sasajima), Supervisor (Atsushi Suzuki). - Maximum the Hormone - Dhurha Vs Dhurha - Maximum the Hormone, released January 12, 2022 (
WPZL-90246). A&R (タナケン), A&R (宮越 陽士), Copyright (c), Distributed By, Main Staff (宮越 陽士), Package Coordination (松山 斎), Released By, Releasing Label, Sales Promotion (伊藤 早樹).
Gallery
History
Translated from the ja.wikipedia article ワーナーミュージック・ジャパン (CC BY-SA 4.0), revision 110989346.
On November 11, 1970, Warner Bros. Pioneer Corporation was established through investment by three companies: Warner Bros. (50%), Pioneer, then an audio equipment manufacturer (25%), and the talent agency Watanabe Productions (25%). This structure was adopted because, at the time, it was not possible in Japan to establish a record company funded solely by American capital.
At its launch, the company operated four labels: Warner Bros. (now Warner Records), transferred from Toshiba Musical Industries (now Universal Music LLC); Atlantic, transferred from Nippon Grammophon (now Universal Music LLC); Reprise, transferred from the Victor World Group of Victor Company of Japan (now Victor Entertainment, second company); and Pioneer, a newly established Japanese music division focused primarily on releasing theme songs and soundtracks for television anime and tokusatsu dramas.
Although the company had a strong image as a Western music-oriented label due to artists such as Led Zeppelin during its active years, it also placed emphasis on Japanese music from the outset. Its first major hit was Rumiko Koyanagi's “Watashi no Jokamachi.” Japanese music releases were not all handled under the Pioneer label, but were allocated according to the artist; Koyanagi was on Reprise, while Pedro & Capricious was on Atlantic.
In 1972, the company changed its name to Warner-Pioneer Corporation.
In 1978, Watanabe Productions announced that it would consolidate release rights for recordings under Apollon Music Industry (now Bandai Namco Music Live), in which it had invested alongside Warner, and withdrew its capital. Consequently, recordings whose masters had been supplied by Watanabe Music Publishing were withdrawn, and some works were reissued by SMS Records.
In 1990, Pioneer decided to enter the music and video software production business within its own group. It had changed the trade name of LaserDisc Corporation, established in 1981, to Pioneer LDC (now NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan) in 1989, and formally withdrew its capital in that year. The company became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Warner Bros. group and a record company funded solely by American capital.
The new company WEA Music Corporation was established. Its first artist was Noriyuki Makihara, and Ikuzo Orita served as its representative. Alfa Moon merged with Mother & Children, formed an alliance with Juggler, changed its name to MMG Inc., and launched the GARLAND label. It became part of the Warner Music Group.
In 1991, the company changed its name to Warner Music Japan Inc. (the first corporation).
In 1993, it jointly established One Up Music (now Up-Front Works) with Up-Front Group, the talent agency to which Stardust Revue and Chisato Moritaka belonged. MMG Inc. changed its name to EastWest Japan.
In 1994, it absorbed and merged WEA Music Corporation, which had been established in 1990, consolidating its labels under wea japan. Warner functioned as the group’s holding company as a corporate entity. It also acquired Mycal Hummingbird’s music and video businesses.
In 1996, it completely withdrew from the enka division of Japanese music. Enka singers affiliated with the company, including Sachiko Kobayashi, were compelled to transfer to other companies.
In 1997, a large number of executives, including Hiroshi Inagaki and Kenko Hashizume, transferred from Sony Music Entertainment to Warner. Tomomi Kahala, Miki Imai, Ryuichi Sakamoto, PENICILLIN, and others were transferred from other companies for high transfer fees.
In 1998, wea japan was absorbed by Warner, and the releasing company was changed to Warner Music Japan.
In 2002, the three affiliated companies EastWest Japan Inc., Warner Music Japan Inc., and Time Warner Entertainment Japan Inc. merged to form Warner Entertainment Japan.
In 2004, the American company Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery), the parent company of Warner Bros., separated and sold its music division. Accordingly, Warner Entertainment Japan also separated its music software division and changed its name back to Warner Music Japan (the second corporation).
On May 6, 2011, Warner Music Group agreed to accept an approximately US$3.3 billion acquisition by the American investment fund Access Industries, headed by Len Blavatnik, who had served as a member of the company’s board of directors from 2004 to 2007.
In May 2013, the typeface used for the company name “WARNER MUSIC JAPAN” was changed. The logo mark itself was unchanged. In September 2013, following Warner Music Group’s acquisition on February 7 of the Parlophone Label Group, a division of EMI Records, from Universal Music, the Japanese distribution rights for EMI Classics, excluding masters formerly held by EMI Music Japan, and for European EMI releases, excluding the Beatles, were transferred from Universal Music Japan.
Effective April 1, 2014, Kazuyuki Kobayashi became representative director, chairman, and CEO.
In March 2015, the company launched Warner Music Agency Inc., an in-house company and talent agency business. In July, Hideaki Horikiri became representative director and COO.
On October 1, 2017, the company decided to outsource the retail sales and distribution operations for packaged products such as CDs and DVDs to Sony Music Marketing (now Sony Music Solutions) from the autumn of that year.
On April 1, 2020, it changed the design of its logo mark, or corporate identity. On November 11, it marked 50 years since its founding as Warner Bros. Pioneer.
On August 5, 2021, the company launched Warner Music Artists, a talent agency business focused on actress and model management, as an in-house company succeeding the previous Warner Music Agency.
On December 12, 2024, Warner Music Japan and NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan announced the conclusion of a partnership concerning anime music.
Often Credited With
Credited on 2 or more of the same releases, most shared first.
Sources
- Wikidata entity Q874433.
- ja.wikipedia, ワーナーミュージック・ジャパン (revision 110989346), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photograph: Warner Music Japan logo.svg on Wikimedia Commons, Public domain; a trademark of its owner - the organisation's own logo, by ™/®Warner Music Group Corp..
