is a Japanese publishing company. With a number of controversial books that disturbed the Japanese society and its erotic manga comics, the company has established itself like a source of provocative "subculture" items.
History
Ohta Publishing was created in 1985, when it separated from the publishing department of
Ohta Production
, sometimes shortened to Ohta Pro, is a Japanese talent agency headquartered in Yotsuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo. It was founded in 1963 and focuses on talent management for actors, athletes, comedians and '. The agency have produced numerous television ...
, a talent agency specializing in stand-up comedians. (Founded as a , it has, , been converted to a
kabushiki gaisha
A or ''kabushiki kaisha'', commonly abbreviated K.K. or KK, is a type of defined under the Companies Act of Japan. The term is often translated as "stock company", "joint-stock company" or "stock corporation". The term ''kabushiki gaisha'' in ...
.)
Initially, from an outside perspective, Ohta Publishing did not seem like a serious company but rather a sort of toy company of
Takeshi Kitano
, also known as in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host.
During hi ...
(who was an Ohta Production artist back then). It released books that were of interest to Kitano himself.
In 1989, Ohta published the famous book ''The Age of M'' about serial child murderer
Tsutomu Miyazaki
was a Japanese serial killer who murdered four young girls in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture between August 1988 and June 1989. He abducted and killed the girls, aged from 4 to 7, in his car before dismembering them and molesting their corpses. ...
and started establishing itself like a source of provocative "subculture" items. Around the same time, the bi-monthly magazine ''
QuickJapan'' was founded. In 1993 Ohta released the book ''
The Complete Manual of Suicide'' and in 1999 ''
Battle Royale
Battle Royale may refer to:
* Battle royale, or battle royal, a fight among many combatants
** Battle royal (professional wrestling)
Fiction and literature
* Battle royale genre, a narrative genre of films, manga, anime and visual novels inspire ...
'', which shook Japanese society.
At the end of the 1990s, the company also started working with manga artist
Naoki Yamamoto, dubbed the master of erotics, and founded the manga magazine ''Manga Erotics''. Its successor ''
Manga Erotics F
was a bimonthly manga magazine by Ohta Publishing. It was first published as a monthly magazine on January 1, 2001, and switched to bimonthly
{{Short pages monitor