Hachette Book Group, Kadokawa to rename Yen Press as Yen Press, LLC in May

Japanese publisher Kadokawa Corporation announced on Monday via press release that it is entering into a joint venture with New York-based publishing company Hachette Book Group to publish manga and light novels in English. Under the new joint venture, Hachette's Yen Press imprint will split off from being a completely-owned Hachette Book Group company, and will be jointly owned by Hachette and Kadokawa, with Kadokawa having a 51% stake in Yen Press. The new joint venture will launch in May, and Yen Press will be renamed Yen Press, LLC.

The press release mentions that Yen Press is the second largest English manga and light novel publishing company in North America. The press release also mentioned that sales of light novels have increased since Yen Press began publishing light novels in 2014. The announcement added that the new joint venture aims to establish light novels as a new content genre by using Hachette's existing production and distribution infrastructure, with Kadokawa providing leadership.

Yen Press vice president and publishing director Kurt Hassler will continue to lead Yen Press LLC under the title Managing Director and Publisher.

Yen Press previously collaborated with Japanese publisher Square Enix to release manga in English digitally.