WAvex Inc. (,) is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1988, the company manages J-pop talents like Ayumi Hamasaki and internet sensation PikoTaro. It has also shifted into other business domains like anime, video games and live music events, partnering with Ultra Music Festival and hosting the annual A-nation. The company is a member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) keiretsu.
WAI Entertainment Inc. was founded in 2007. It is a Japanese indie record label and publishing company which supports the indie artists of the world.
WAlfa Records Inc. , originally a publisher known as Alfa Music Ltd. and later succeeded by record company Alfa Music Inc., was established in 1969 by composer and record producer Kunihiko Murai. It was formed into an independent record label known as Alfa Records in 1977. A short-lived American subsidiary operated from 1980 to 1982.
WAvex Trax is a record label owned by Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex Inc.. The label was launched in September 1990, and was the first label by the Group.
WColourful Records , is an imprint of the Japanese record label Victor Entertainment. The Colourful Records imprint was created on June 1, 2011 to specialize in the production and promotion of pop music acts.
WD-topia Entertainment is a Japanese record label produced by Terukado Ōnishi, officially established in public prior to December 14, 2007. The label is dedicated to promoting girls' entertainment, particularly the music of female singers. It was formed as a business partnership between Avex Group, its co-area promoter, and Victor Entertainment, its distributing label.
WDefstar Records, Inc. was a Japanese record label, a subsidiary of Sony Music Japan.
WEMI Records Japan was a Japanese record label which operated as a sublabel of Universal Music Japan. Established in April 2013, it was the successor of its previous entity as a company, EMI Music Japan. The sublabel's headquarters was located at Universal Music Japan's main office at Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. In February 2014, the sublabel had been divided into two separate sublabels, EMI Records, which contains the combined Nayutawave Records and more than half of the EMI Records Japan roster, and EMI R, which consists of the remaining EMI Records Japan artists. In July 2014, EMI R was renamed to Virgin Records.
WEpic/Sony Records is a Japanese record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Its founder was Shigeo Maruyama.
WExtasy Records is a Japanese record label founded in April 1986 by Yoshiki Hayashi, co-founder of the heavy metal band X Japan. The label's first release was X's 1986 single "Orgasm".
WFlyingDog, Inc. , also stylized as flying DOG, is a Japanese record label formerly known as the Victor Entertainment subsidiary M-serve, founded in 1997. FlyingDog is a record label that specializes in the production of animation-related video and music software.
WJ Storm, Inc. is a Japanese music and film company owned by Johnny & Associates. It was established on November 12, 2001, initially as a label for the Johnny's group, Arashi, after which it was named.
WJohnny & Associates is a Japanese talent agency, formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962, which trains and promotes groups of male entertainers known as Johnny's .
WJVCKenwood Victor Entertainment Corporation, also known as Victor Entertainment in Japan, is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the RCA Victor label.
WKioon Music is a Japanese record label, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan.
WKing Records Co., Ltd. is a Japanese record company founded in January 1931 as a division of the Japanese publisher Kodansha. It initially began operating as an independent entity in the 1950s. It later became part of the Otowa Group. Today, King Records is one of Japan's largest record companies which is owned by a multinational entity. The headquarters are in Bunkyo, Tokyo.
WKitty Films was a production company established in 1972 in Japan.
WLantis Co., Ltd. was a Japanese company that served as a music publisher label for Japanese musicians, anime soundtracks and video game soundtracks. It was established on November 26, 1999, and became a subsidiary of Bandai Visual in May 2006, itself a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. In February 2018, it was announced Lantis would be merged with Bandai Visual into a new company called Bandai Namco Arts. The reorganizing took effect on April 1, 2018. Lantis only remains as a label from the new company.
WLeaf Hound Records is a Japanese record label specializing in 1960s and 1970s inspired stoner/doom metal. The label takes its name from the 1970s hard rock band Leaf Hound. Leaf Hound Records has released material from Japanese bands such as Church of Misery and Sonic Flower, US bands such as Blood Farmers and Acid King and European bands such as Orange Sunshine and Acrimony. They have re-released a number of albums that were originally released by Germany's Hellhound Records. These reissues include Revelation's Never Comes Silence, Iron Man's Black Night and The Passage, and the Blood Farmers self-titled album. They have also reissued two other Revelation albums, Salvation's Answer and an unreleased album, and have also announced plans to issue Revelation's fourth album, Release.
WLemoned Plant is a Japanese independent record label. It was founded as LEMONed in 1996 by popular rock musician Hideto "hide" Matsumoto. The retail store Lemoned Shop was later created, and seems to have become the main focus.
WMeldac is a Japanese music and video game company. They also had a subsidiary in America called Meldac of America before it became defunct in the 1990s.
WNippon Columbia Co., Ltd. , often pronounced Korombia, operating internationally as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK Columbia trademarks in 1931. The company changed its name to Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd. in 1946. It used the Nippon Columbia name until October 1, 2002, when it became Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc. . On October 1, 2010, the company returned to its current name. Outside Japan, the company operated formerly as the Savoy Label Group, which releases recordings on the SLG, Savoy Jazz, and continues to operate as Denon. It also manufactured electronic products under the Denon brand name until 2001. In 2017, Concord Music acquired Savoy Label Group. Nippon Columbia also licensed Hanna-Barbera properties in Japan until those rights were transferred to Turner Japan sometime in 1997. Currently, these rights are owned by Warner Bros. Japan LLC.
WNitto Records was a Japanese record label, originally published by the company Nittō Chikuonki Kabushiki Gaisha (日東蓄音器株式会社) established in Osaka on March 20, 1920. The label was also called the "Swallow Brand", because of their trademark artwork.
WPony Canyon Inc. , also known by the shorthand form Ponican , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which publishes music, DVD and VHS videos, movies, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyon is a major leader in the music industry in Japan, with its artists regularly at the top of the Japanese charts. Pony Canyon is also responsible for releasing taped concerts from its artists as well as many anime productions and several film productions.
WSony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short, is a Japanese music arm for Sony. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is operating independently from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry. Its subsidiaries include the Japanese animation production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in September 1995 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid '90s producing and licensing music for animated series such as Roujin Z from acclaimed Japanese comic artist Katsuhiro Otomo and Capcom's Street Fighter animated series.
WSYUN was a Japanese record label founded by Susumu Hirasawa in 1994. Hirasawa created the label to be able to have freedom to release some of his less commercial works ; the label was named after Syun, Hirasawa's experimental sampler unit, the label's logo is the cover of the Syun album SHUN・4, which was designed by Quiyoshi Inagaki. Distribution was handled by DIW Records, an independent label owned by the music store chain disk UNION. It released music sparsely, always in a pair of two, which were sold in record stores and through mail order. Hirasawa's direct releases were mostly material that was created years before it was released. The label eventually stopped after Hirasawa/P-MODEL signed with Nippon Columbia and later on formed the Chaos Union company, giving himself more freedom to release what he wants. Hirasawa eventually released the Ashu-on [Sound Subspecies] in the solar system and HALDYN DOME box sets, reissuing most of the SYUN catalog, with most of the remaining releases being out of print since their release under the SYUN label.
WTeichiku Records is a Japanese record label, run by Teichiku Entertainment , that specializes in enka, kayōkyoku, and similar music. Teichiku is an abbreviation for Teikoku Chikuonki , the former name of the company. Teichiku Entertainment also runs the record labels Imperial Records, Takumi Note, and Union Records . It is a division of commercial karaoke manufacturer XING Inc., itself a subsidiary of Brother Industries.
WTokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, manga and books.
WVAP, Inc. is a Japanese entertainment company, headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Nippon Television Holdings, Inc.
WVenus Records is a Japanese jazz record label. It was founded in 1992 by Tetsuo Hara, who had worked as a producer for RCA Victor. It mostly works with a select group of artists from Italy, the United States, and Japan, and uses a signature 24-bit mastering process, named "Hyper Magnum Sound," that produces "very powerful sound with strong presence". It is also known for its album covers, which use well-known photographers and frequently feature nudity.
WWACK is a Japanese music production company specialising in alternative idols. The company was founded by Junnosuke Watanabe in 2014, following the first disbandment of BiS and the formation of Pla2me.