Warner Music Japan

Warner Music Japan Inc. was created in 1991, when it served two purposes:

• the distributor for all of the Warner Music operations in Japan, which included this Warner Music Japan division, the WEA Music K.K. division, and MMG Inc.
• the sound copyright holder of the Warner Music Japan division and later the WEA Music K.K. division. (MMG Inc. held the copyrights for its own labels.)

This is generally not a release label until approximately 2002. In the first 2 years of operation, Warner Music Japan continued using existing non-Japanese labels from Warner Pioneer Corporation as their own domestic labels - so labels like Warner Bros., Reprise, wea were used for both Japanese domestic artists and international music.

In 1993, Warner Music Japan's operations were reorganized into two subsidiary companies, WEA Japan and East West Japan, and most Japanese domestic artists were rebranded with Japan labels, such as:

• +A.K.A.bounce
• A.K.A.records
• Atlantic Japan*
• DREAM MACHINE
• eastwest*
• EXTASY JAPAN
• GARLAND
• MOON RECORDS
• ORGANON
• PLANETS
• TRINITAS
• wea japan

At some point in the mid-2000's, the vast majority of these labels were retired and most Japanese domestic releases appeared under "WARNER MUSIC JAPAN". Currently, Warner Music Japan does not operate many sublabels - the notable ones include:

• Real note (until 2010)
• unBORDE (since 2010)
• ATLANTIC JAPAN (reactivated in 2015)