News

Kadokawa Acquires Anime Festival Asia Organizer Sozo

Kadokawa and Singaporean events company Sozo Pte. Ltd. both announced on Tuesday that Kadokawa has acquired Sozo, with Sozo now becoming a consolidated subsidiary of Kadokawa. Neither company disclosed the sale price of the shares. Sozo's current management structure will remain unchanged

Sozo organizes the Anime Festival Asia conventions, which take place annually in Singapore, and has also held events in Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Japan. It is one of the largest anime and Japanese pop-culture conventions outside Japan. 2024's Anime Festival Asia in Singapore drew 130,000 attendees. Aside from Anime Festival Asia and its attached I Love Anisong label, Sozo also owns JLive Asia, and organizes the Japan Music Festival brand, and also organizes concerts for individual Japanese acts.

Anime Festival Asia Singapore recently took place at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Singapore on November 28 to 30. The convention will return to Hong Kong with a new event at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on February 14 and 15, 2026. The convention previously held events in Hong Kong from 2017 to 2019, in collaboration with the C3 Japan Anime & Game Expo, making this the first AFA event in Hong Kong in seven years. 

Source: Press release, Kadokawa, Sozo

---

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.