Fuchida Tadayoshi (淵田忠良; Fl. c. 1928 - 1940) was a Japanese editor and writer with Dai Nippon Yūbenkai Kōdansha (大日本雄辯會講談社), a major magazine publisher of the era. He was responsible for overseeing a series of maps of China, Manchuria, Mongolia, and other regions that were published as special addendums to Kodansha publications, especially King (キング) magazine. More by this mapmaker...

Kodansha (式会社講談社, 1909 - Present), also known as Dai Nippon Odankai Kodansha, is a Japanese publishing house founded in 1909 by Seiji Noma (野間淸治). Seiji founded Kodansha as a spin-off from the Dai-Nippon Yūbenkai (Greater Japan Oratorical Society) and produced the literary magazine Yūben as its first publication. The name Kodansha, a derivative of the defunct magazine Kōdan Club (Storytelling Club), in 1911, which it merged with the Dai-Nippon Yūbenkai. In 1925, Kodansha launched King (キング) , the first magazine to sell 1,000,000 copies in its first printing. Kōdansha published several other magazines including Women's Club (婦人倶樂部) and Boy's Club (少年倶樂部) and had become a major shaper of Japanese culture and public opinion by the 1930s, controlling 70% of the magazine market. Kōdansha suffered difficulties during the war period, due to both intense censorship and the 1938 death of both Noma Seiji and his son, Noma Hasashi (野間恒), within weeks of one another. Still, the company survived the wartime era and, after a period of difficulties during the U.S. Occupation due to Kōdansha's endorsement of militarism, benefitted from a postwar publishing revival. Although King and other magazines ceased publication in the postwar period, Kōdansha branched into other areas, including manga and music recording, and is now the largest publisher in Japan. Learn More...

Dai Nippon Printing (大日本印刷株式會社; 1876 - present) is a Tokyo-based printing company with roots dating back to the Meiji era with the publisher Shūeisha (秀英舎), which developed a reputation for embracing new technologies and mechanization over traditional woodblock methods. In 1935, Shūeisha merged with Nisshin Printing (日清印刷), a publisher related to Waseda University, to form Dai Nippon Printing. In the postwar period, the company expanded further and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1949. In the mid-1950s, Dai Nippon was involved in printing the first editions of the Kōjien (広辞苑) dictionary, akin to Merriam-Websters in the United States or the Oxford English Dictionary in Britain, as well as Shukan Shincho (週刊新潮), long one of the most popular weekly news magazines in Japan. In subsequent years, the company branched out internationally and into other industries, including bottling Coca-Cola, but, like the publishing industry as a whole, has faced financial difficulties in recent years. Learn More...

Yokota Shūji (横田秀治; fl. c. 1935 - 1939) was a Japanese printer with the Dai Nippon Printing Co. (大日本印刷株式會社) who worked on at least two maps that appeared in King (キング) magazine, published by Dai Nippon Yūbenkai Kōdansha (大日本雄辯會講談社). Learn More...