Translation of Kodansha Article from Nikkei Net (July 1)

There has been a lot of buzz and speculation about the Kodansha jump to the US with little to go off of. Here is my translation of the article posted on July 1 from Nikkei Net, and maybe it helps answer some questions.

講談社、日本の漫画を米国で出版　人気作を９月から

　講談社は漫画事業で米国に進出する。ニューヨーク州に現地法人を設立し、日本の人気漫画の単行本の出版と販売を9月から始める。著作権を現地出版社に供与して収入を得る従来の戦略を転換。米国を手始めに海外での出版事業を強化する。国内で書籍や雑誌の販売が苦戦する中、まず日本漫画の人気が高まりを見せる米国に着目、同市場を開拓する。
　1日付で米国市場を管轄する持ち株会社「講談社ＵＳＡ」を設立した。持ち株会社の資本金は200万ドル（約2億1000万円）で、講談社の全額出資。野間省伸副社長が社長を兼ね、9月に営業を始める。同日付で出版子会社も設立した。

Japanese Manga Publisher Kodansha to Publish Popular Titles Starting in the US in September

Manga publisher Kodansha moves forward with plans to publish in the US. An office will be established in New York state and sales and marketing of popular manga books will begin in September. The move is an effort to strengthen the revenue for copyrighted titles by moving from American publishers and selling directly into the American market. As they fight hard for domestic [meaning "in Japan"] book and magazine sales, they have seen the rise in popularity of Japanese manga in the United States.

From the first of this month, jurisdiction of the American market was established with "Kodansha USA". The capitol stock of the holding company is two million dollars (210 million yen), and is completely owned by Kodansha. Executive Vice-President Yoshinobu Noma will head the endeavor and will begin work in September. A subsidiary publishing company [possibly plural] was established on the same day.

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