Warner Music Japan (primary imprint of Warner Music Japan, Inc.; do not use for copyright/publisher/etc. relationships!)
~ Label
Annotation
This is generally not a release label until approximately 2001.
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 itself, the WEA Music K.K. division, and MMG Inc.
- the sound copyright holder of itself and later the WEA Music K.K. division. (MMG Inc. held the copyrights for its own labels.)
In the first 2 years of operation, Warner Music Japan Inc. continued using existing non-Japanese labels from Warner Pioneer Corporation as their own domestic labels: Warner Bros., Reprise, and 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 Japanese 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
In 2001, a new "WARNER MUSIC JAPAN" imprint began to be used, and by the mid-2000's, the vast majority of the Japanese labels listed above were retired in favor of "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)
- TACO RECORDS (since 2018)