Pony Canyon

• 1. Introduction

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  Pony Canyon's catalogue includes a 1996 Indian erotic film called Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, credited among the company's co-productions. That title sits oddly next to the everyday business of a Tokyo based company best known for Japanese pop records and anime series. Pony Canyon distributes music, films, home video, and video games, and its recording artists frequently top the sales charts in Japan. It is affiliated with the Fujisankei Communications Group, keeps offices in Taiwan and South Korea, and employs approximately 360 people. The company also owns a separate recording label called Flight Master. None of that explains how a record label ended up licensing a role playing video game series originally made in the United States. Nor does it explain why an Indian film carries the company's name in its credits. Those answers sit in a string of mergers, licensing deals, and financial setbacks that the company worked through over the decades that followed.

• 2. Two Labels, One Company

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  On the 1st of October 1966, Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. set up a new record label division called Nippon Broadcasting System Service, Inc. Its job was producing and marketing music from Japanese artists. In 1970, the division took a new name, Pony Inc., matching brand names it already used: PONYPak for 8 track cartridges sold from 1967, and PONY for cassettes sold from 1968.

  On the 1st of August 1970, a second label, Canyon Records Inc., was founded under the same Fujisankei Communications Group umbrella. Pony Inc. financed 60 percent of Canyon Records, while Pony's parent company, Nippon Broadcasting System, supplied the remaining 40 percent.

  In 1982, Pony began producing personal computer game software under the name Ponyca, expanding beyond records for the first time. In 1984, it signed license agreements with MGM/UA Home Video, Aya Pro, Walt Disney Home Video, and BC Video. It opened offices in New York and London in 1985. The following year, it added RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video to its home video licenses, and signed a deal with A&M Records for Japanese CD releases. Virgin Records signed a similar deal in 1989.

  On the 21st of October 1987, Pony Inc. and Canyon Records merged their operations into a single company, Pony Canyon Inc. Three years later, that merged company would open five subsidiaries outside Japan at once.

• 3. Boom, Bust, Rebuild

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  In 1990, Pony Canyon opened five subsidiaries outside Japan, most of them across East Asia. Its Hong Kong branch came first, launched as Golden Pony in 1991 through a merger with Golden Harvest.

  A subsidiary in Singapore followed, aimed at the Southeast Asian market. After that came a South Korean branch called Sam Pony, built through a partnership with Samhwa Video Production, a company now known as Samhwa Networks.

  Pony Canyon's Singapore subsidiary, named Skin, was managed by Jimmy Wee. It signed local English language performers including Gwailo, Art Fazil, Chris Vadham, The Lizards' Convention, Humpback Oak, and Radio Active. The company kept a subsidiary in Taiwan as well.

  The Asian financial crisis of 1997 closed four of those five subsidiaries, leaving only the Malaysian branch in operation. Hong Kong and Korean operations were later reestablished as wholly owned subsidiaries, though the Korean venture kept a 16 percent stake for its local partner.

  In 2003, Forward Music acquired the Hong Kong and Taiwan branches, both still weakened by the earlier crisis. Pony Canyon did not reopen a branch in Taiwan until 2018, more than twenty years after the crisis first hit.

• 4. Adventures On Cartridge

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  Origin Systems' Ultima series and Strategic Simulations' Advanced Dungeons and Dragons series both reached Nintendo's Family Computer through Pony Canyon. Between 1986 and 1990, the company produced remakes of the first four Ultima titles for the MSX2 and NES platforms.

  Those remakes differed from the original Ultima releases, with rewritten game code and entirely new graphics. Pony Canyon's video game library was generally released in North America through a company called FCI.

  Hydlide, Penguin Land, Super Pitfall, and a Japan exclusive version of Pitfall! all carried the Pony Canyon name in Japan. Bubble Ghost and Zanac appeared on the same roster of published titles.

  Pony Canyon has not released a video game since Virtual View: Nemoto Harumi, a PlayStation 2 title from July 2003. That gap now stretches more than two decades, marking video games as the shortest chapter in the company's history.

• 5. A Broadcaster's Subsidiary

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  A merger with Nippon Broadcasting System made Fuji Television Network, Inc. the majority shareholder of Pony Canyon in 2006. The following year, Fuji Television turned Pony Canyon into a wholly owned subsidiary.

  Fuji Television itself took a new name in 2008, becoming Fuji Media Holdings. Despite that ownership link, not all of Pony Canyon's television and film library has actually aired on Fuji Television's own network.

  Doraemon movies sit among the titles in Pony Canyon's catalog that fall outside the Fuji Television broadcast schedule. That gap between ownership and broadcast history left room for a separate overseas distribution arm to grow, one aimed specifically at audiences outside Japan.

• 6. Chart-Topping Roster

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  THE ALFEE stayed on Pony Canyon's roster from 1979 to 1997, one of the label's longest running acts. Kitarō recorded with the label from 1979 to 1981, and singer Miki Matsubara stayed signed from 1979 until 1986.

  Masako Mori's contract ran from 1979 all the way to 2008, nearly three decades on the same label. Idol collective Onyanko Club and singer Shizuka Kudo also built their catalogs under the Pony Canyon name.

  Some acts eventually moved on. CHAGE and ASKA left for Toshiba-EMI in 1997. Arashi moved to J Storm in 2002, and singer Miyuki Nakajima departed for Yamaha Music Communications in 1999. Girl group Buono! transferred to Zetima in 2011.

  Pony Canyon's roster has also reached beyond Japan. American actress Alyssa Milano recorded with the label from 1988 to 1993, and British group Bananarama and the duo Weather Girls both appear on its artist list. South Korean acts signed too, including the group BTS, the idol groups B1A4, SS501, and Dreamcatcher, and soloist Kim Samuel.

  Behind the scenes, composer Yasuharu Takanashi is credited on the anime series Fairy Tail, though only its first season. Composer Masaya Oya, who also works as Camellia, is credited only on the label's main line albums. That same anime connection would later carry Pony Canyon's catalog across the Pacific, under a label built specifically for North American audiences.

• 7. Reaching Overseas Fans

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  In September 2014, Pony Canyon opened a North American anime distribution label called Ponycan USA. The label aims to license its titles for streaming and home video release across the United States and Canada.

  Right Stuf Inc. distributes Ponycan USA's home video releases exclusively. Series carried under the label include Kuromukuro, a Netflix original, along with Sound! Euphonium and Welcome to the Ballroom.

  Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, Sanrio Boys, and The Lost Village round out the label's catalog. None of those anime deals touched the label's music side, where Pony Canyon was about to add an entirely new imprint of its own.

• 8. The Red On Label

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  On the 20th of December 2025, TOBE joined with Pony Canyon to launch a new label called RED ON. The name stands for Resonance, Expression, and Destiny, aiming to open new possibilities for artistic expression in Japan and abroad.

  Hiromitsu Kitayama, an artist signed to TOBE, became RED ON's first artist under the new joint label. Kitayama's signing gives Pony Canyon a stake in whatever RED ON's roster becomes next, the newest entry in a catalog still being written.