Sony Music Entertainment Japan headquarters

Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. (株式会社ソニー・ミュージックエンタテインメント, Kabushiki gaisha Sonī Myūjikku Entateinmento^?, often abbreviated as SMEJ and also known as Sony Music Japan for short) is Sony's music arm in Japan. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Corporation and independent from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry.^[1]

Its subsidiaries including the anime production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in January 1997 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid 90's producing and licensing music for Anime such as Roujin Z from acclaimed Manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo and Capcom's Street Fighter anime series.

Until March 2007, Sony Music Japan also had its own North American sublabel, Tofu Records. Releases of Sony Music Japan now appear on Columbia Records or Epic Records in North America.

Releases on Columbia Records in other countries appear on Sony Records in Japan because a competitor, Columbia Music Entertainment, owns the rights to the trademark there.

With Sony Corporation of America's buyout of Bertelsmann's stake in Sony BMG, Sony Music Entertainment Japan stepped in to acquire outstanding shares of BMG Music Japan from Sony BMG, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Japan.^[2]

[edit] History

Sony Music Entertainment Japan was originally founded in 1968 as a 50/50 joint venture between Sony Corporation and CBS Records to distribute the latter's music releases in Japan. The company was named CBS/Sony Records Inc.^[3][4] In 1988, Sony acquired CBS Records and the 50% of the joint venture that it did not already own. The company was then renamed Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), Inc.

[edit] Labels and sublabels

• Aniplex
• Ariola Japan
• BMG Music Japan
• DefSTAR Records
• Epic Records (Japan)
  • Antinos Records
• Ki/oon Records
  • Haunted Records
  • Ki/oon Records2
  • NeOSITE
• SME Records
• Sony Music Records
  • Sony Records
  • gr8! records
  • Studioseven Recordings
  • MASTERSIX FOUNDATION
  • Niagara Records
• Sony Music Associated Records
  • onenation
  • tributelink
  • TERRY DOLLAR RECORD$
  • Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Records
• Sony Music House
• Village Music

[edit] Notable artists

[edit] See also

• Sony Music Entertainment
• BMG Japan

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. official website