Kadokawa has been busy making moves to bolster its position in the North America market. In addition to its strategic alliance with Crunchyroll for anime, the publishing/media company will be taking a 51% state in North American manga/light novel publisher Yen Press at the end of April as Hachette Book Group spins-off the imprint.

Hachette will continue with the joint operations of Yen Press, allowing Kadokawa to leverage its access to local manufacturing, logistics infrastructure sales and marketing. The venture aims to expand local sales of English versions of its manga and novels. Kadokawa was previously indirect in offering its content, selling it abroad via local publishers and agents only.

Last spring, Kadokawa began to restructure their Japanese businesses, further simplifying the branding and corporate structure of what, in 2013, was consolidated into brand companies ASCII Media Works (parent of the Dengeki family of manga, light novel and game publications), Chukei Publishing Company (educational books), Enterbrain (Famitsu, other tech magazines and manga), Fujimi Shobo (Dragon magazines with manga and light novel, Kadokawa Gakugei Shuppan Publishing, Kadokawa Magazines, Kadokawa Shoten (Newtype, the Acemagazines) and Media Factory (Comic Flapper, Comic Alive).

Overlapping editorial functions were combined in the new structure as media like the magazine organization split departments by genre. The corporate structure's use of established brand names such as Kadokawa Shoten, which had years of history, and Fujimi Shobo, which had plenty of fan cache, were affected by the move.

via Nikkei Asian Review

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.