Type Kabushiki gaisha Industry Advertising agency Website Official website Founder Masao Inagaki | Traded as TYO: 9747 Number of employees 1,925 (Dec 2011) Headquarters Chūō, Tokyo, Japan Founded 19 March 1956 | |
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Key people Kōichirō Naganuma (President and CEO) Stock price 9747 (TYO) JP¥ 2,950 -10.00 (-0.34%)24 Feb, 3:00 PM GMT+9 - Disclaimer CEO Shinichi Ueno (28 Mar 2013–) | ||
Asatsu-DK Inc. (株式会社アサツー ディ・ケイ, Kabushiki-gaisha Asatsū Di Kei) (ADK; sometimes called Anime Densetsu no Kaitakusha (アニメ伝説の開拓者, A Pioneer of the Animation Legends), is a Japanese advertising agency. Headquartered in the Toranomon Hills building complex in Minato, Tokyo since June 2014 (previously in Tsukiji, Chūō, Tokyo), the firm is Japan's third largest advertising agency after Dentsu and Hakuhodo. The agency has 80 offices in over 20 countries. One, Asatsu-DK Europe, was established in 1993 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The WPP Group holds a 20% share in Asatsu-DK.
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History
Asatsu Inc. was established in 1956 by Masao Inagaki. On August 1998, it entered a business tie-up with the WPP Group. It soon merged with fellow advertising agency Dai-ichi Kikaku Co., Ltd. (established in 1951) to form Asatsu-DK (the DK stands for Dai-ichi Kikaku) on January 1, 1999. Masao Inagaki died on April 16, 2015.
Subsidiaries and interests
It owns a variety of interests, including production studio NAS; animation studio Eiken; Nihon Bungeisha Publishing; film and print processor Taiyo Seihan; production studio Sun Artist Studio, Supervision Inc.; television commercial production house Prime Pictures; and creative services company Tokyo Ad Party.
Asatsu-DK is also involved in producing and providing its services to numerous anime series, through itself as well as its subsidiaries, including recent installments of Sunrise's Gundam series, such as the latest series Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Turn A Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed and Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny, as well as several other anime titles.