Manga, anime and game publisher Kadokawa announced on May 14 that its board of directors has decided to oppose a proposal to remove Takeshi Natsuno from his current position as the company’s president and CEO (as spotted by GameBiz).
The proposal came from Oasis Japan Strategic Fund (owned by Hong Kong-based activist hedge fund Oasis Management Company, Kadokawa’s largest shareholder as of March 30, 2026), who argued that there are “serious issues with internal governance” in the company. It cited several concerns, including what it perceives as Kadokawa having a “quantity over quality” approach to IP creation, a “failure to fully leverage global publishing capabilities despite owning Elden Ring developer FromSoftware,” and a steep decline in earnings per share during Natsuno’s appointment. The fund also raised concern about goodwill impairment at anime studio Doga Kobo (which Kadokawa acquired in July 2024) and losses suffered by the company following the 2024 cyberattack among others.
In response, Kadokawa’s board of directors argued that much of the criticism does not reflect the company’s actual circumstances or is outright false (particularly the “quantity over quality” claim). It judged that the proposal to remove Natsuno would be “inappropriate from the perspective of improving medium- to long-term corporate value.”
The document explains that with Natsuno’s appointment as CEO in 2021, Kadokawa has been gradually increasing revenue as well as “strengthening its growth foundations” across publishing, games, anime and other fields by “by building a system that can stably create IPs, expanding its animation production system, and expanding its overseas bases.” While acknowledging that Kadokawa has not been meeting its operating profit targets in areas like anime and publishing due to rising production costs, a lack of hits and market conditions, the board explained that a new mid-term management plan was announced on the same day. Since Kadokawa plans to conduct a big restructuring of its plans and double down on Natsuno’s “Global Media Mix with Technology” business strategy, it considers his leadership “indispensable” going forward.
