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Tsutaya's Culture Convenience Club Purchases Publisher Tokuma Shoten
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Culture Convenience Club (CCC), the company that operates Japan's media retailer and rental chain Tsutaya, announced on Tuesday its plans to acquire publisher Tokuma Shoten. In a deal expected to be completed at the end of March, CCC intends to increase its stake in the company from 15% to 96%. CCC plans to leverage Tokuma Shoten's publishing expertise and expand its bookstore business.
Tokuma Shoten is primarily a print material publisher, but it is known for funding the early work of anime director Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli was founded as a subsidiary to Tokuma Shoten in 1985 and the studio was absorbed by Tokuma Shoten in 1997, but it split from the publisher and went independent in 2005. Nevertheless, Tokuma Shoten continues to publish Ghibli-related books such as Miyazaki's original Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga and the Art of series, and Viz publishes many of these books in English.
Tokuma Shoten publishes several manga and anime magazines, including Monthly Comic Ryū, Monthly Comic Zenon, Animage, and Chara.
Sources: Variety (Mark Schilling) via Yahoo! Movies, NHK News Web, Nikkei
