Sorajima

Sorajima Inc. is a digital entertainment studio specializing in the production and distribution of original Webtoon series, which are full-color comics optimized for vertical scrolling on smartphones. The company was founded in February 2019 by Co-CEOs Kojuro Hagihara and Juro Maeda with the mission to create globally recognized content.

Kojuro Hagihara graduated from Waseda University and worked at Mitsubishi Corporation before becoming the first person to summit an unclimbed peak in the Himalayas in 2017. Juro Maeda, a high school classmate of Hagihara's, graduated from Waseda University and earned a master's degree from Sorbonne University. He was managing the French business development for a Japanese food chain in Paris, where he became convinced that entertainment was Japan's key export. The two launched Sorajima with the shared ambition to "do something big that can go out into the world."

Initially, the company experimented with different business ventures, including a period of doing YouTube channel production for other companies to stay afloat. This led them to start their own YouTube animation channels. Recognizing the rapid global growth of the Webtoon market, Sorajima pivoted in 2021 to focus exclusively on this format, ceasing its YouTube animation business in May 2022. The company operates on a studio model, using a division-of-labor system where multiple creators handle specific parts of the production process, such as story planning, character design, line art, coloring, and backgrounds. This enables a high volume of output, with the company releasing 26 original works in 2022 and announcing a plan to produce 51 new titles in fiscal 2023.

Sorajima distributes its content on various manga apps across more than 11 countries, including Japan and the U.S. The company also develops its own manga app, "cosmic," to deliver its titles directly to a global audience. Revenue is generated through the sale and licensing of its Webtoon content on these platforms. The business model is focused on creating a large portfolio of original intellectual property that can be leveraged for multimedia expansion, such as animation and live-action adaptations. The company has successfully raised significant capital, including a Series B funding round of approximately 1 billion JPY in March 2023, to fuel its content production and global expansion.

Keywords: Webtoon studio, digital comics, vertical scrolling manga, original content production, manga distribution, entertainment startup, mobile comics, Japanese manga, content licensing, digital publishing, manga app, Kojuro Hagihara, Juro Maeda, comic production, anime adaptation, multimedia franchise, content creation, digital entertainment