ASIA Japan : Kadokawa Group, comprising group companies engaged mainly in publishing or movies/visual content, and NTT DoCoMo, announced they will form a comprehensive alliance through a capital tie-up.

Left shows Shione Sudo - one of the characters currently used by Kadokawa.

DoCoMo will acquire 1,031,000 shares in the holding company, or 3.78% of total issued shares, for about four billion yen through a third-party share allocation on December 12, 2006. Under the agreement, DoCoMo will also tie up with the group companies Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd., Kadokawa Herald Pictures, Inc., Kadokawa Mobile, Inc., Herald Enterprise, Inc. and Kadokawa Media House Inc.

The alliance will combine Kadokawa's strengths as a major provider of printed and visual content with DoCoMo's huge subscriber base and i-mode™ mobile Internet service. The use of visual content over mobile networks is expected to increase rapidly with the ongoing introduction of high-speed network technologies, such as high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA).

The parties will develop mobile content related with Kadokawa movies and animation, including original video content developed initially for the mobile environment, prior to release via other media. The parties will also consider possibilities for DoCoMo to join the film producing project which Kadokawa manages.

Customers will be able to use the iD™ mobile credit service, which can be used on Osaifu-Keitai™ e-wallet phones, for payments at 11 Cineplex theaters (92 screens) of Herald Enterprise by the end of June 2007. In addition, DoCoMo's ToruCa™ information-capture service is planned to be introduced at the theaters.

Also, Kadokawa will increase the range of content it distributes through some 40 sites it has on the i-mode portal.

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