Kenkyūsha


The Kenkyusha Co., Ltd. is a publishing house with headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Its product range is centered on foreign language—mainly English—dictionaries and textbooks. The name, Kenkyūsha, can be translated as "study/research company".

History

The company was founded by Goichirō Kosakai as English Kenkyūsha in 1907 published the first edition of Elementary English Study one year later. In 1916 the company's name was changed to its present: Kenkyūsha.
The predecessor of Senior High School English Study titled Examination and Student was launched in 1917. The company extended its product range in 1918 with the Japanese-English Dictionary, a large dictionary, compiled by　Yoshitarō　Takenobu.
Kenkyūsha expands, establishing in 1919 a typesetting workshop on the slope of Kudan, a former street in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and — in 1920 — a printing house on Kagurazaka in Ushigome. In 1921, the first volume of the Eibungaku Series covering English literature appears. All of the 100 volumes are completed by 1932.
Due to reconstruction, in 1924, the printing house is temporarily moved to Iidamachi. 1927 sees the completion of the printing shop on Kagurazaka. Another press is established in 1939 in Kichijōji, west of central Tokyo. In 1944, Kenkyūsha receives an assignment from Aki Yasutarō for The Rising Generation, a monthly magazine aimed at researchers and students of English literature. In the same year, the Japanese scholar Fumio Nakajima publishes Eigo no Jōshiki.
Three years later, the Fuji plate-making factory is founded. The printing business is split off in 1951 under the Kenkyūsha Printing Corporation.
In 1963 the company publishes The Kenkyūsha Shakespeare consisting of 12 volumes. A year later, is launched together with the. A year after its 60th anniversary, in 1968, Kenkyūsha publishes in five volumes.
The year 1984 saw big changes for the company. Kenkyūsha Printing built a new office in Nobidome, Niiza in Saitama Prefecture. The Fuji plate-making factory and the Kichijōji factory were moved to the new location and at the printing shop at Kudan, a typesetting factory was established.

Dictionaries

Kenkyūsha has been publishing dictionaries in various sizes for almost one hundred years. The following list is a selection of dictionaries published by the company together with the years of publication.
  • New English-Japanese Dictionary: 1927 by Yoshisaburō Okakura, 1980, 2002
  • Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary: 1918 by Yoshitarō Takenobu, 2003
  • New College English-Japanese Dictionary: 1967, 1994, 2003
  • New College Japanese-English Dictionary: 1995, 2002
  • New Collegiate Japanese-English Dictionary: 1933, 1963, 1983
  • English-Japanese Dictionary for the General Reader: 1984, 1999
  • Japanese-English Dictionary for the General Reader:
  • Luminous English-Japanese Dictionary: 2005
  • Luminous Japanese-English Dictionary: 2005
  • Lighthouse English-Japanese Dictionary: 1984, 1996, 2002, 2007
  • Lighthouse Japanese-English Dictionary: 1984, 1996, 2002, 2008
  • College Lighthouse English-Japanese: 1995
  • College Lighthouse Japanese-English: 1995
  • English-Japanese Dictionary of Medical Science: 1999, 2008
  • Deutsch-Japanisches Wörterbuch: 1996
  • Dictionary Of English Collocations: 1995
  • New Japanese-English Character Dictionary: 1990
  • Green Lighthouse English-Japanese Dictionary: 1994
  • An Encyclopedic Supplement to the Dictionary for the General Reader: 1994
  • New College English-Japanese Japanese-English Dictionary E-book version'': 1990

Periodicals

  • The Rising Generation: with the migration to the web edition, the publication was paused with the March issue 2009
  • The study of current English published from 1945 to 2000, Current English suspended in 2003
  • Senior High School English Study suspended in 1997

Subsidiaries

  • Kenkyūsha Publishing:

Former subsidiaries

  • Kenkyusha Printing Co., Ltd: A printer for Kenkyusha Co., Ltd. In 1951-02-01, it became an independent company.