Maker directory

Hobby Japan

Japan

A Japanese publishing and hobby-industry conglomerate founded September 27, 1969 in Tokyo, with origins tracing to the November 1965 opening of the Post Hobby Yoyogi store. The defining product is Hobby Japan magazine — the monthly trade publication of the Japanese hobby industry, launched August 1969 and continuously published since, covering model kits, scale figures, dioramas, military models, and the broader hobby craft scene. Operations extend across Arms Magazine (military models and toy guns, launched December 1987), the HJ Bunko light-novel imprint (started 2006), board game and tabletop RPG publishing, figure retail and distribution through the company's online and physical channels, and the AMAKUNI in-house premium scale-figure brand launched September 2012. Headquartered at the Shinjuku Hobby Building, 2-15-8 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Daisuke Matsushita serves as President & CEO. For figures, Hobby Japan's role is principally publisher / distributor / figure-retailer rather than direct sculpt-and-mold manufacturer; the AMAKUNI sub-brand carries the in-house figure-manufacturer credit, and product attributions naming Hobby Japan on figure packaging typically reference the magazine's media-partnership role or the company's exclusive-distribution channel rather than as the manufacturing operator.