Sony Music Entertainment Japan

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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 independent from the worldwide Sony BMG joint venture 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.

Japanese artists and bands on Sony Music Japan's numerous labels include: Younha, Dir en grey, Flow, Ken Hirai, L'Arc~en~Ciel, SunSet Swish, Jinn, Chemistry, Polysics, Nana Kitade, Yui, Angela Aki, Porno Graffitti, Cool Joke, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, High and Mighty Color, Beat Crusaders, Mika Nakashima, Nami Tamaki, Yellow Generation, Orange Range, Crystal Kay, Sowelu, Soul'd Out, Miliyah Kato, Yuna Ito, Back-On, access, UVERworld, abingdon boys school and numerous others.

Until March 2007, Sony Music Japan also had its own North American sublabel, Tofu Records.

Contents

[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.[2] 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. Very many people are in SMEJ.

[edit] Labels and sublabels

  • Aniplex
  • DefSTAR Records
  • Epic Records (Japan)
    • Antinos Records
  • Ki/oon Records
    • Haunted Records
    • Ki/oon Records2
    • NeOSITE
  • SME Records
  • Sony Music Records
  • Sony Music Associated Records
    • onenation
    • tributelink
    • TERRY DOLLAR RECORD$
    • Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Records
  • Sony Music House
  • Village Music

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Sony Japan not part of BMG merger plan-Bertelsmann", Forbes.com, November 15, 2003. Retrieved on 2006-07-21. 
  2. ^ Sony and the Modern Age Sony Music UK. Retrieved on 6 August 2006.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links