is a Japanese management and entertainment company, established in May 2019 as a joint venture between South Korean

CJ ENM CJ ENM (, CJ Entertainment aNd Merchandising) is a South Korean entertainment and retail company founded in 2018. CJ ENM was established as a result of the merger of two CJ Group subsidiaries, CJ E&M and CJ O Shopping respectively, in July 201 ...

and Japanese

Yoshimoto Kogyo is a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate. It was founded in 1912, Osaka, as a traditional theatre, and has since grown to be one of the most influential companies in Japan, employing most of Japan's popular owarai (comedy) talent, produci ...

. The company operates as a talent agency, entertainment company, and record label under Yoshimoto Music. It currently manages the winning groups of ''

Produce 101 Japan ''Produce 101 Japan'' is a 2019 Japanese reality competition show and a spin-off of the South Korean television series ''Produce 101''. The show followed 101 trainees with the intention of producing an 11-member boy band. The members, group name ...

'',

JO1 is a Japanese boy band formed through the reality competition show '' Produce 101 Japan''. The group is composed of eleven members: Issei Mamehara, Ren Kawashiri, Takumi Kawanishi, Shosei Ohira, Shion Tsurubo, Ruki Shiroiwa, Keigo Sato, Syoya Ki ...

and INI, as well as trains several former trainees from the show under the program Lapone Boys & Girls.

History

Lapone Entertainment was founded on May 29, 2019, as a joint venture between the South Korean company

and the Japanese company

, to organize and manage the winning group of the audition program ''

'', which was co-produced by the two companies and MCIP Holdings. CJ ENM invested 11.5 billion won (US$9.6 million as of 2019) into the company, while Yoshimoto Kogyo invested 5 billion won (US$4.2 million as of 2019), splitting their shares 7:3. The name "Lapone" is derived from Yoshimoto Kogyo's slogan "laugh and peace" and CJ ENM's "only one". Choi Shin-hwa, former head of Yoshimoto Korea, was appointed as the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, while Jang Hyuk-jin from CJ ENM Japan was appointed as the

COO COO or coo may refer to: Business * Certificate of origin, used in international trade * Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official * Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process ...

. The company specializes in the planning, production, distribution, and sale of various videos and recordings of their artists. They also handle contracting and copyright business related to broadcasting programs, such as television or radio appearances and commercials. Lapone Entertainment also provides a training system where their artists routinely learn singing, dancing, lyrics writing, and composing, as well as receive language lessons between Korean, Chinese, or English. The company makes use of resources from both CJ ENM and Yoshimoto Kogyo to operate. Yoshimoto Kogyo handles the day-to-day management, such as local broadcast recruitment and schedule coordination, while CJ ENM handles the training and music production, though it is not limited to South Korean or Japanese producers only. On March 4, 2020, the company debuted its first group

, which formed through ''

''. In 2021, the show was renewed for a second season, which led to the creation of the second boy group INI. In June 2021, Yoshimoto Music announced the formation of a joint venture with

Universal Music Japan , often referred to as just Universal Music Japan or UMJ, is a Japanese subsidiary of the Universal Music Group founded in 1990. It is the largest subsidiary for a foreign company in the country regarding music distribution. The company is resp ...

, causing the company's releases, including Lapone Entertainment which operates under it as a label, to be distributed by Universal Music Japan. However, releases by JO1 are still distributed by Sony Music Solutions. In December, Lapone Entertainment introduced and opened recruitment for the trainee program, Lapone Boys & Lapone Girls, which included former contestants of ''Produce 101 Japan Season 2'', Ayuta Fukuda, Ken Hiramoto, Koshin Terao, and Nalu Okubo. On January 1, 2023, Lapone Entertainment opened official Twitter and YouTube accounts which feature collaboration projects between its groups. On February 13, the company announced to debut the six-piece boy band DXTeen on May 10th.

Artists

Groups

* INI * DXTeen

Notable trainees

* Lapone Boys

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lapone Entertainment J-pop Japanese record labels Japanese talent agencies Entertainment companies of Japan Entertainment companies established in 2019 Record labels established in 2019 Talent agencies based in Tokyo Japanese companies established in 2019