Curated playlist
Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
- McDonald'sIn 1948, the McDonald brothers fired all 20 of their carhops and cut the menu to nine items.
- FujifilmFujifilm began in 1934 as a film maker and now also makes drugs and stem cells.
- TV AsahiTV Asahi began as a channel required by law to be half educational. It later became home to Kamen Rider.
- Koei TecmoTecmo turned down a takeover bid and agreed to merge with Koei the same day. The Square Enix offer came in 2008.
- NintendoNintendo began in 1889 as a maker of handmade playing cards. Fusajiro Yamauchi opened the shop in Kyoto.
- Japan AirlinesAfter its 2010 bankruptcy, Japan Airlines hired a chief with no airline experience. He founded Kyocera.
- Nihon FalcomNihon Falcom took its name from the Millennium Falcon, with one letter changed.
- Square EnixIn 2022, Square Enix sold Tomb Raider and Deus Ex to Embracer Group for $300 million.
- SonySony built the PlayStation after Nintendo dropped it as a partner in 1991.
- MandarakeMandarake began as a seven-square meter Tokyo shop selling used manga. It now catalogs over twenty million items.
- DentsuHow does one company, Dentsu, come to handle roughly 28 percent of Japan's national advertising budget?
- KonamiKonami's legal team blocked Hideo Kojima from accepting his Game Awards 2015 prize. The audience booed.
- CapcomCapcom was close to financial collapse in the late 1980s. A strip mahjong game called Mahjong Gakuen pulled it back.
- SoftBank GroupIn 2000, Masayoshi Son wired $20 million to a young Chinese startup called Alibaba.
- Kadokawa CorporationKadokawa began in 1945 as a small postwar book publisher. It now owns anime studios, game makers and a streaming site.
- Toei AnimationIn 2022, a ransomware attack on Toei Animation interrupted broadcasts of One Piece.
- WowowOne American cult series brought Wowow nearly 30% of its new subscriptions. The show was Twin Peaks, by July 1992.