GAKKEN HOLDINGS
- Name: Gakken Holdings Co., Ltd.
- Address: 11-8 Nishigotanda 2-chome, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-8510
- TEL. 03-6431-1001
- Established: March 31, 1947
- Listed: First section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, 1984
- Fiscal term: September
- Capital: 18,357,023,638 yen (as of March 31, 2009)
- Annual sales: 77,887,000,000 yen (consolidated)
- Branch offices: Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, other
- President, Representative Director: Yoichiro Endo
- Senior Managing Director: Fumio Togashi
- Executive Directors: Hideki Furuoka, Michinori Kimura, Satoru Nakamori, Hiroaki Miyahara, Takashi Kawasaki
- Standing Corporate Auditors: Akio Honma, Haruo Wada
- Corporate Auditors: Noriaki Yamada, Shuhei Sakurai
Educating our children for the next generation is the most important thing
we can do to rebuild our nation
In 1946, just after WWII, the late educator Hideto Furuoka founded Gakken Co., Ltd out of his own commitment to education.
Since then, education has been the cornerstone of our business activities. Our publishing activities center around journals and books, but have expanded to a wide variety of topics—including entertainment, hobbies, and culture—as lifestyles have changed. Beyond publishing, we are heavily involved in the education industry, primarily developing educational materials for kindergartens and schools as well as offering Gakken Classrooms. We are also taking up the challenge of developing digital materials for cutting-edge media platforms.
Our business environment is currently undergoing dramatic and far-reaching shifts. These include social changes such as an aging society and widening income gap, innovations in information distribution and communications technology, and the globalization of world economies and markets. Faced with these challenges, our group has established a holding company with the aim of ensuring stable and lasting growth.
Promoting independent, swift corporate activity is essential. Therefore, each corporation in the holding company retains full responsibility for its individual business activities. We are confident that this will boost the corporate value of the Gakken Group and lead to greater customer trust.
We live in a rapidly changing world where we are constantly inundated with information. However, these conditions are a golden opportunity for us to stand out as a business group that offers information of genuine quality while valuing the creativity and richness of the human spirit.
Our passionate and progressive spirit constantly drives us as we bring together our talents and skills. We consider it our corporate mission to support the development of those who will move Japan forward in the next generation.
You can expect the best from this new face of Gakken. We ask for your continued support and encouragement in the coming years.
Gakken Holdings Co., Ltd.
Yoichiro Endo
Through our classrooms and preparatory schools, we offer total educational solutions that foster ability and creativity while developing a love of learning and vitality in infants, children, and adults. Our focus is on Gakken Classrooms institutions that promote skill development through individual instruction and specialty educational materials.
We offer a full range of supports aimed at kindergartens and nursery schools, with the belief that childhood is when character building is most critical. These include play equipment, furniture, books, magazines, school clothes, and snacks. We also offer training sessions and classes for childcare workers.
We support on-site school enhancement using a broad range of knowledge and expertise developed over the course of our company's history as an educational institution.
We bring useful information on parenting and education to family homes, specializing in home education materials for infants through junior high students. We also offer general publications, health products, and other items.
Our full line of picture books, reading materials, and study books are designed to satisfy kids' curiosity. We offer powerful support for learning, which is an essential part of children's growth—fostering new discoveries, experiences, and the educational facts to back them up.
We cover every possible genre—from cooking, etiquette, and parenting to entertainment, history, religion, and sports. We offer a full lineup of publications, including a variety of magazines, how-to books for daily living, and educational books useful for business and other pursuits.
In addition to our core education and publishing activities, we are working to develop business activities that support lifestyles for a broad range of age groups. These include:
Nursing care, parenting support, temporary job placement services, corporate hiring support,
graduate job-seeking support,
development and sale of office supplies and general merchandise, logistics
Educational Research Institute,
Creative Science Institute
| Apr. | 1946 | The late Hideto Furuoka founds Gakken Co.,Ltd with the conviction that education is the key to Japan's postwarreconstruction |
|---|---|---|
| Mar. | 1947 | Gakken Co., Ltd is reorganized and incorporated as Gakken Co., Ltd Co., Ltd. |
| Sep. | 1947 | Direct distribution sales begin; direct-to-school sales system initiated |
| Mar. | 1953 | Company offers nationwide service through a network of 13 branch offices |
| Apr. | 1962 | New Tokyo company headquarters completed (Kami-ikedai, Ota-ku) |
| Dec. | 1964 | Gakken 2nd Building completed in Tokyo (Naka-ikegami, Ota-ku) |
| Jun. | 1965 | Kenshuu-shuppan Co., Ltd. established to sell books and educationalmaterials |
| Nov. | 1966 | Rippu Shobo Publishing Co., Ltd. established to handle publishing |
| Jul. | 1971 | Bookshop sales promotion team (Selector System) established |
| Oct. | 1972 | Shift to direct in-home sales system using educational companions |
| May. | 1975 | Gakken Kappuhanbai Co., Ltd. established |
| Sep. | 1975 | Shujunsha Co., Ltd. established to publish medical materials |
| May. | 1979 | Record circulation of 6.7 million , ‘Gakushu' and ‘Kagaku' |
| Aug. | 1982 | Company listed in the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange withcapital of 2.0 billion yen |
| Dec. | 1982 | Merger with Gakken Kappuhanbai Co., Ltd. |
| Feb. | 1984 | Company listed in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange withcapital of 5.6 billion yen |
| Feb. | 1985 | Gakken Medicom Co.,Ltd. established to handle online information services |
| May. | 1985 | Gakken Network Co., Ltd. (now Gakken Data Service Co., Ltd.) establishedto write, score, and correct tests |
| May. | 1986 | Gakken 3rd Building completed |
| Mar. | 1987 | Tradingcompany Gakken (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. established |
| May. | 1988 | PlatzArtist Co., Ltd. established to create audio products and managecopyrights |
| Oct. | 1992 | Gakken Logistics Co.,Ltd. established to handle logistics systems |
| Mar. | 1994 | AMS Co., Ltd. established to handle office management |
| Apr. | 1990 | Gakken Toy Hobby Co., Ltd. (now Gakken Sta:Ful Co.,Ltd.) established tocreate and sell stationery |
| Apr. | 1994 | EPO Co., Ltd. established to design and create educational materials |
| Apr. | 2000 | 'Gakken With Net' private tutor placement service begins |
| Jul. | 2004 | GakkenCocofump (now Gakken Cocofump Holdings Co., Ltd.) established to handlenursing care |
| Jul. | 2004 | Merger with Rippu Shobo Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Feb. | 2005 | Gakken R&C Co., Ltd. established to handle third-party evaluations |
| Nov. | 2005 | Gakken Method established as a preparatory school management company |
| Aug. | 2006 | Full-scale entry into the testing industry. ANCES Inc. (operating companyfor Tokyogakuen) becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary and the new Gakken Questcompany is founded |
| Nov. | 2006 | Gakken Area Market Co.,Ltd. is established to handle the sales of picturebooks and preschool products for kindergartens and nursery schools |
| Dec. | 2006 | Nationwide entry into the testing industry |
| Dec. | 2006 | The preparatory school management company Tohoku Best Study becomes awholly-owned subsidiary of M&A |
| May. | 2007 | Capital and business alliance formed with Turtle Study Staff Co., Ltd., amajor player in the private tutor industry |
| May. | 2007 | Showa Co., Ltd., a preparatory school management company based in Kyushu,becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of M&A; name changed to Gakken Seminar |
| Jan. | 2007 | Capitalalliance formed with the preparatory school management company Hot Line Co.,Ltd. |
| Feb. | 2008 | Thepreparatory school management company Shubunsha Co., Ltd. becomes awholly-owned subsidiary in a stock swap |
| Mar. | 2008 | Capital and business alliance formed with Kosaido Co., Ltd. |
| Aug. | 2008 | GakkenBuilding moved to Shinagawa-ku in Tokyo, separate business officesconsolidated |
| Aug. | 2008 | Capital and business alliance formed with the preparatory schoolmanagement company Meiko Network Japan Co., Ltd. |
| Jan. | 2009 | Capital and business alliance formed with the preparatory schoolmanagement company Waseda School Co., Ltd. |
| Jan. | 2009 | Capital and business alliance formed with the preparatory schoolmanagement company Sozogakuen Co., Ltd. |
| Oct. | 2009 | Gakken Co., Ltd becomes a holding company. Name changed to GakkenHoldings Co., Ltd. |
