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Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. (SMEJ), also known as SME Records and 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.• 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 the Sony Music Japan label include: L'Arc~en~Ciel, Nana Kitade, Porno Graffitti, Cool Joke, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, YeLLOW Generation, Crystal Kay, Sowelu, and others, many of whom often participate in and perform the opening and ending theme songs for Sony's anime productions (under its Aniplex subsidiary), for example Fullmetal Alchemist, and many others. Sony Music Japan also has its own North American sublabel, Tofu Records.
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. 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. Labels See also | ||||||||
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