Konami Corporation (コナミ株式会社, Konami Kabushiki-gaisha?) (TYO: 9766 NYSE: KNM SGX: K20) is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games. Konami is famous for games such as the Metal Gear series, Dance Dance Revolution series, Castlevania series, Pro Evolution Soccer series and Silent Hill series.
The company was founded in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair business in Osaka, Japan, by Kagemasa Kōzuki, the still-current chairman and chief executive officer. The name "Konami" is a conjunction of the names Kagemasa Kouzuki (current chairman of the board and CEO), Yoshinobu Nakama, Tatuso Miyasako[citation needed] (another theory[by whom?] was Hiro Matsuda, and Shokichi Ishihara)[citation needed], who were partners acquired by Kozuki and the original founders of Konami Industry Co., Ltd in 1973. Konami can also mean "small wave(s)" in the Japanese language.
Konami is currently headquartered in Tokyo and additionally operates health and physical fitness clubs in Japan. Konami also operates United States activities in El Segundo, California for video games and Las Vegas, Nevada for the casino gaming industry. The location in Paradise, Nevada is located across the street from one of the runways at McCarran International Airport. Its Australian gaming operations are located in Sydney, Australia, and distribution of Konami's games in Australia is handled by Atari Australia, which is usually subject to controversy as Konami of Europe's games distributed by Atari Australia are much more expensive than other games distributed by them. Distribution of KOE's games in Australia was to be taken over by Red Ant Enterprises in February 2009, but Jason Hill from The Age and ASIC, a government body, announced that the company went into External Receivership and Administration, which then led KOE to re-sign with Atari Australia.
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