{"id":66768,"date":"2026-05-18T13:49:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66768"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:49:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:49:45","slug":"kadokawa-cites-excessive-reliance-on-the-isekai-genre-as-one-of-the-major-causes-of-the-decline-in-profitability-in-its-domestic-publishing-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-cites-excessive-reliance-on-the-isekai-genre-as-one-of-the-major-causes-of-the-decline-in-profitability-in-its-domestic-publishing-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Kadokawa cites excessive reliance on the isekai genre as one of the major causes of the decline in profitability in its domestic publishing business \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, Japanese manga, anime and game publishing giant Kadokawa announced<\/a> its consolidated earnings results for the fiscal year ended March 2026. According to the report, the company suffered a 51.3% decrease in operating profit compared to the previous year, driven by the poor performance of its core publishing and IP creation business (a 51.6% decrease in operating profits year-on-year).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the recently published mid-term management plan<\/a> for the period between FY 2026 and FY 2031, Kadokawa cites \u201cexcessive reliance on existing winning patterns\u201d as one of the major factors contributing to the decline in profit across the publishing sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, the company has acknowledged a recent bias towards \u201cproven genres,\u201d such as isekai and narou-kei, inevitably leading towards market saturation and worsening profitability. According to Kadokawa, the formulaic approach and a clear lack of depth of content diversity is what\u2019s been preventing its domestic publication business from exploring new genres and taking on innovative projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Kadokawa has been actively implementing measures and hiring more editors in order to expand the number of published titles without bearing a load on its staff, this has also proven to negatively impact its business, leading to an \u201cincrease in titles lacking originality or quality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To tackle the issue, the company will focus on rebuilding its \u201cgenre strategy,\u201d while implementing stricter criteria for greenlighting projects. Furthermore, a strong emphasis has been placed on the restructuring of the publication business, with the Publication Steering Committee, being established in November 2025 as a system for implementing \u201cfundamental structural reforms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a related note, in an effort \u201cbuild a leaner and more efficient organizational structure,\u201d Kadokawa has also announced an early retirement program for its employees<\/a>. Starting June 1, the company will solicit voluntary resignations among employees aged 45 or older who have at least five years of service.\u00a0Employees who agree to retirement will get an additional severance package on top of the regular severance pay, as well as optional re-employment support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan doesn\u2019t have a shortage of light novel authors, but the number of readers is decreasing. Kadokawa\u2019s pursuit for foreign talent is a way to \u201cstir things up in the market\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kadokawa\u00a0reports\u00a0sharp decline in publishing, anime business falls into deficit\u00a0due to a lack of popular sequels\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its new mid-term management plan Kadokawa addresses recent financial losses driven by the company’s “bias towards proven genres.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":63559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[261,17,66],"class_list":["post-66768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-financial-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-non-gaming-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nKadokawa cites excessive reliance on the isekai genre as one of the major causes of the decline in profitability in its domestic publishing business \u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In its new mid-term management plan Kadokawa addresses recent financial losses driven by the company's "bias towards proven genres."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-cites-excessive-reliance-on-the-isekai-genre-as-one-of-the-major-causes-of-the-decline-in-profitability-in-its-domestic-publishing-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kadokawa cites excessive reliance on the isekai genre as one of the major causes of the decline in profitability in its domestic publishing business \u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In its new mid-term management plan Kadokawa addresses recent financial losses driven by the company's "bias towards proven genres."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-cites-excessive-reliance-on-the-isekai-genre-as-one-of-the-major-causes-of-the-decline-in-profitability-in-its-domestic-publishing-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-18T04:49:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-18T04:49:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260309-62412-header1-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kadokawa cites excessive reliance on the isekai genre as one of the major causes of the decline in profitability in its domestic publishing business \u00a0 - 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