In comments made last month, KADOKAWA CEO Takeshi Natsuno said there were too many anime and publishing companies, and the numerous new entrants in the anime industry were making it less profitable.
He also lamented that despite KADOKAWA being a “Big Four” book publisher (Shogakukan, Shueisha, Kodansha, KADOKAWA), the Big Four only made up 20% of the market for new books compared to 80% for others (Niconico stream, via Naoto Misaki on X). Excerpts of his statements are below.
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In the first image, Natsuno says that solely focusing on animators’ pay leads to short-sightedness, and while his comments may cause controversy, there’s a problem of too many companies, adding that in the anime industry, there are loads of presidents, executives, sales staff, etc., making up small anime production companies rather than creatives.
He later says that more company groups to absorb these staff are necessary, joking that it would make the presidents of these smaller companies disappear, before correcting himself and saying they would still exist, but wouldn’t be necessary. He goes on to say in the second image that with all the new players cropping up in the anime market, anime is becoming unprofitable.
Natsuno cited examples of consolidation in the gaming industry, such as Square Enix (formerly Square and Enix), Koei Tecmo (Koei and Tecmo), and Sega Sammy (Sega and Sammy), as success stories.
He argues that unifying the back offices of multiple companies would allow creators to focus on creating, citing Electronic Arts (EA) in the United States. LDP (Japan’s current government) minister Kimi Onoda, whose remit includes intellectual property and Cool Japan initiatives, replied that she worked at a very small gaming company, which allowed the younger generation to bring experimental and cutting-edge ideas. She also said the strength of Japan’s content is its diversity.
Natsuno said these companies would still exist—but under a group structure, citing KADOKAWA, which has 7 studios following last year’s acquisition of Chiptune. He went on to cite company alliances such as KADOKAWA’s alliance with Sony as an example of how it seeks to strengthen the industry.
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It’s worth noting that various major anime companies are seeing strong and growing profits, rather than a universal image of profit decline. In KADOKAWA’s case, it said “there were large declines in sales and profits in Animation” in its recent FY2026 earnings results.
Toei Animation saw a 25.7% increase in net profit from FY2024 to FY2025 and a 6.1% increase from FY2025 to FY2026. Bandai Namco’s Visual and Music (previously IP Production) and Avex’s Anime & Visual content business have also shown profit growth over the last 2 years. (Avex’s Anime and Visual Content Business was, however, in the red in FY2023). IG Port’s profitability has been trending upwards over the last few years.
KADOKAWA CEO Calls for Reduction in Anime & Publishing Companies Amid Pressure to Step Aside + Company Rocked by Profit Decline
These comments were made on April 26. A few weeks later in mid-May, KADOKAWA’s largest shareholder, activist investor Oasis Management Company, called on shareholders not to reappoint Natsuno as a company director and CEO at the upcoming June 2026 AGM. Oasis launched a website (abetterkadokawa.com) with a press release and a 133-page presentation outlining Natsuno’s perceived leadership failures.
Among the perceived issues were poor performance; changes in profit forecasting; “value leakage” by leaving the overseas publishing of FromSoftware’s games (e.g., ELDEN RING) to third parties like Bandai Namco; a “quantity over quality” IP approach; declines of the value of assets, with anime studio Doga Kobo cited as an example; recent cyberattacks; not leveraging the strength of its IP; Natsuno’s public controversies; and more.
Oasis argued that Natsuno implicitly acknowledged that it had been pursuing a quantity-over-quality model after KADOKAWA announced an 82.7% decline in net profit on May 14, which it partly blamed on “excessive reliance on winning patterns” like Narou (Shosetsuka ni Narou) and Isekai-type works, and increases in the number of titles (despite keeping the number of titles per editor down) led to decreased profitability and no hit titles. See: KADOKAWA Mid-term Management Plan (FY2026 to FY2031).
The plan had previously been to grow the number of published IPs from 6,000 to 7,000. KADOKAWA says it has already begun reforming its strategy (below screenshots). Amid fellow anime companies seeing large profits from distributing hit films (e.g., Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man), KADOKAWA and Aniplex announced a new joint venture distribution and promotion company, Animec, in March 2026.
KADOKAWA’s board of directors, of which Natsuno is a member, denied several of Oasis’s arguments, explaining that the company has been strengthening its foundation for the future and that Natsuno was necessary to its plans. You can read a summary at Gamebiz.
Source: Niconico via PR Times, Naoto Misaki via X
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