Following the news of a few weeks ago that Kodansha and Dai Nippon Printing are buying Vertical, Inc. (see this article), Publishers Weekly is now reporting that Kodansha is “closing Kodansha International, an English-language imprint of the giant Japanese publishing house that published a diverse list of fiction and nonfiction in translation.”
Laura Shatzkin, Kodansha America’s Director of Marketing and Sales said that details on the closing of the unit were still being determined, although the closing itself is definite. At the moment, it appears “the future frontlist of Kodansha International will not be published,” Shatzkin said. The deliberations now apparently focus on trying to integrate the remains of KI with the newly acquired Vertical.
Kodansha International was founded in 1963, and published a list of English language titles that included fiction and nonfiction works in hardcover and paperback. The 25-30 titles a year included crafts, illustrated cookbooks, martial arts, works on Japanese pop culture and English language books on how to speak Japanese.