King Record Co., Ltd. (キングレコード株式会社),[1] commonly known as King Records, 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 not owned by a multinational entity. The label's headquarters are in Bunkyo, Tokyo.
The label's name is actually based from the now-defunct Kingu magazine published by Kodansha from 1924 to 1957.
Sub-labels
Its Starchild label, was managed by animation producer Toshimichi Ōtsuki, specialised in anime music and film. King Records also distributes the Up-Front Works–owned and –operated labels Piccolo Town and Rice Music, and also released video games for the PC-88, Famicom, Game Boy Advance, and MSX2 platforms. On February 1, 2016, King Records restructured Starchild and renamed it King Amusement Creative.[2]