Kimura-Shaw Software and Gaming

*This article is about the Japanese software company headquartered in Canada by the Kimura-Shaw Company. For the American video game manufacturer owned by New Kimura Roadhouse Company, see Kimura Associates USA, Inc.*

## Kimura-Shaw Software and Gaming, Inc.

Corporate logo of The Kimura-Shaw Company as of 2023

### Formerly

Kimura Associates Ltd. (木村同僚株式會社「キムラ・アソシヱーツ」, 1896-1982), Kimura Associates KK (キムラ・アソシエーツ株式会社, 1982-2018), Kimura Associates Group Japan Holdings KK (株式会社キムラ アソシエーツ グループ ジャパン ホールディングス, 2018-2023)

### Founded

April 14, 1896 (127 years ago, as Kimura Associates Ltd.)June 18, 2023 (1 month ago, as Kimura-Shaw Software and Gaming, Inc.)

### Products

Software, publishing, video games, educational games

### Parent

Random House-Kimura-Brøderbund Software Organization, LLC (1980-2023)The Kimura-Shaw Company (2023-present)

***Kimura-Shaw Software and Gaming, Inc.*** (commonly known as **Kimura-Shaw**, stylized as **KIMURA-SHAW**), in reference to the 1997-2012 Shaw logo), formerly known as ***Kimura Associates Ltd.*** (木村同僚株式會社「キムラ・アソシヱーツ」), ***Kimura Associates KK*** (キムラ・アソシエーツ株式会社) and ***Kimura Associates Group Japan Holdings KK*** (株式会社キムラ アソシエーツ グループ ジャパン ホールディングス), is a Japanese-Canadian multinational software and video game manufacturer headquartered in Toronto, Canada and Orlando, Florida, United States. It is a parent of ***The Kimura-Shaw Company*** after the plans to acquire ***Random House-Kimura-Brøderbund Software Organization*** was complete on May 8, 2023. The company was founded on April 14, 1896 by Akihito Kimura (February 10, 1876 - September 30, 1969), and incorporated on May 10, 1896. Akihito Kimura's father, Katsutomo Fujimaki (November 20, 1842 - May 7, 1927) created a spinoff from the future project of the now widely-recognized Kimura Foods brand (now a company of Usagi Mochi). The company was rarely focused on traditional Asian gaming, like *mahjong* or *sudoku*. His relative, Toshihiro Kimura (July 10, 1904 - August 28, 1998) became interested in inventing *hanafuda* cards.

## History

### Mid-1890's through late 1910's: The beginning of the Kimura gaming era, First incarnation of Kimura Associates

Kimura-Shaw Software and Gaming, Inc. was founded on April 14, 1896 as Kimura Associates Ltd in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The founder of ***Kimura Associates Ltd.***, Akihito Kimura, invented the first mahjong puzzle game, eventually taking role in traditional Asian gaming. By August 16, 1903, Akihito Kimura instituted the first corporate logo.

The logo consisted of a flower silhouette with the circle, signalizing the Kimura clan. It contained Japanese writing both in Kanji and in Katakana, and they were both written in reverse. On May 14, 1907, the company was sold to the retail store Mitsukoshi. Akihito Kimura acquired the rights to Mitsukoshi and the company regained success prior to its acquisition from Toyota.

### Early 1920's through mid-1940's: Global expansion and founding of Kimura Associates USA, Inc.

On December 28, 1924, Akihito Kimura set up a global headquarters near northwest 7th Street in Miami, Florida, as a part of their expansion to the United States. This marked the first global headquarters to be introduced to the southeastern United States during the Roaring Twenties. From March 10, 1929, publishing books and supercomputers were sold under the name ***Kimurabund*** (キムラバンド). The first supercomputer sold under the name was ***Kimurabund 2000*** (キムラバンド 2000, キムラバンド にせん), also included the ***Great Kimurabund 2500***. When Kimura Associates Ltd. entered the American market as Kimura Associates USA, Inc. on October 7, 1932, the name was not given due to complications regarding *Brøderbund Software* (not incorporating until 1980).

On August 16, 1945, Kimura Associates Ltd. made a joint venture with Walt Disney Pictures (formerly Walt Disney Productions until 1983) as a film publishing company, but split half-in-half in order to maintain company rights.

### Late 1950's through mid-1970's: Joint ventures with Toyota, death of Akihito Kimura

From August 20, 1957, Kimura Associates Ltd. created a distributing company known as ***Kimura-Toyota Advanced Studies, Ltd.*** during their joint venture with Kimura Associates Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corporation. At the same time, Akihito Kimura founded ***Kimura-Toyota Automobiles Co., Ltd.*** and ***Kimura-Toyota Car Services Ltd.*** as a car manufacturing company. On November 2, 1961, Toshihiro Kimura was interested in inventing hanafuda cards, so the company began selling each of their hanafuda cards to other retailers. On September 30, 1969, Akihito Kimura died of lung cancer and kidney failure, and thus, ***Kimura-Toyota Automobiles Co., Ltd.*** was being renamed to ***Mitsubishi-Toyota Automobiles Co., Ltd.*** and ***Kimura-Toyota Car Services Ltd.*** being renamed to ***Mitsubishi-Toyota Car Services Ltd.***, both sold to the Japanese car manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors. On May 14, 1972, Kimura Associates Ltd. ended their ***Kimurabund*** products, which was sold out to Toshihiro Kimura, who later founded The Makoto Kimura Charitable Trust Foundation in Delray Beach, Florida on August 28, 1972. From May 20, 1974, Kimura Associates Ltd. made a joint venture with House Foods Corporation, beginning its business as ***Kimura-House Foods Holdings KK*** (キムラ ハウス フーズ ホールディングス株式会社).

### Early 1980's through late 2000's: Second incarnation of Kimura Associates

On June 4, 1980, Toshihiro Kimura started incorporating an organization team company called ***Random House-Kimura-Brøderbund Software Organization, LLC***, seeking joint ventures with Random House and Brøderbund Software. He also founded *Broderbund Software International*, an international subsidiary of Brøderbund Software. Starting on October 10, 1982, Kimura Associates Ltd. was getting a name change. Kimura Associates Ltd. was renamed to ***Kimura Associates KK*** (キムラ・アソシエーツ株式会社). On January 15, 1983, Kimura Associates KK started instituting a new corporate logo.

The new logo consisted of a serif font reading "**Kimura Associates**", with Japanese text at the bottom, showing their new company name. In the United States and other countries, the Japanese text is omitted to not show confusion to ***Kimura Associates KK***.

In some English-speaking countries, their old name (Kimura Associates Ltd.) got shortened to just ***Kimura Associates***.

On September 12, 1986, Kimura Associates KK advanced to software and video game manufacturing. Their first video game was sold under their new nickname ***Ground Ball*** (グラウンド・ボール). Some other software and video game products were given by their new nickname. By mid-February 1991, Kimura Associates KK released their first PC software game pack, titled ***Sega Collection Mark III*** (セガ コレクション マーク スリー), which is a software game pack consisting of every video game made by Sega in the mid-1980's. On May 1, 1995, former chairman ***Satoru Kimura*** (born May 5, 1954) resigned from working at Kimura Associates KK and immediately hired his nephew, Shunji Kimura (born April 10, 1962) to take Satoru's place as chairman. On August 28, 1998, Toshihiro Kimura died of pneumonia at a nearby hospital in Ota City, Tokyo, Japan. Toshihiro's grandson, Yoshihisa Kimura (born July 6, 1974), enrolled as an engineer at Kimura Associates KK. On February 15, 2004, Kimura Associates KK released their own version of Disney Interactive's ***Winnie the Pooh: Preschool*** software game.

### Late 2000's to Mid-2023: Third incarnation of Kimura Associates, acquisition of Living Books

From September 25, 2008, Yoshihisa Kimura made a joint venture with Nintendo, doing business as ***Kimuratendo*** (キムラテンドー), a portmanteau of *Kimura Associates KK* and *Nintendo*. But unfortunately, the joint venture ended on May 17, 2009, and *Kimuratendo* was folded into *Kimura Associates KK*. Some products may have retained the Kimuratendo name, but Kimura Associates KK revamped their joint venture, forcing products to be renamed as the ***Kimura Boy*** (キムラ・ボーイ), a portmanteau of Kimura Associates KK and Nintendo's Game Boy consoles. On June 24, 2011, former president and CEO ***Toshikatsu Kimura*** (born March 29, 1971) quit his job as president and CEO, and provided Michitaka Oyama (born April 20, 1967) to take Toshikatsu's role as new president and CEO. Around the same time, the former vice president and COO ***Takashi Kimura*** (born December 6, 1963) left office on May 10, 2012, and provided Akihito Kimura's son, William Dean Kimura Jr. (born June 20, 1974) to take Takashi's role as new vice president and COO. By mid-November 2014, Yoshihisa Kimura made a joint venture with Capcom, eventually founding ***Kipcom Foundry Corporation*** (キプコン ファウンドリー コーポレーション), a portmanteau of *Kimura Associates KK* and *Capcom*. Yoshihisa Kimura also founded ***Brøderbund-Kimura Software, Inc.*** as a subsidiary of Kimura Associates KK. The company greatly cooperated with Disney Interactive on April 10, 2017. On May 26, 2018, Kimura Associates KK was getting a permanent name change. ***Kimura Associates KK*** was renamed to ***Kimura Associates Group Japan Holdings KK*** (株式会社キムラ アソシエーツ グループ ジャパン ホールディングス), or commonly known as ***Kimura Associates Group Japan*** (キムラ アソシエーツ グループ ジャパン), ***Kimura Associates Group*** (キムラ アソシエーツ グループ), or simply the ***KAG*** (prononced "cag", IPA: /ˈkæːg/). The company instituted a new corporate logo starting on June 20, 2018.

The new logo consisted of the Latin letter K shaped like a bunny rabbit with ears, with a blue apostrophe indicating the company's establishment, thus gaining an infamy as the Kimura Foods "K" logo (きむら食品の「K」ロゴマーク). On the bottom reads "**Kimura Associates Group Japan**" in Japanese text and in a gothic font. This was the first manufacturing company to influence the Kimura Foods company, rarely producing its latest "Usagi Mochi" rice cakes. Later, on June 24, 2018, the company started using their corporate logo for international divisions.

The Kimura Foods "K" logo is shown, but it reads "**Kimura Associates**" in serif font. The text shown on the bottom of the new logo is seen as an homage to the formerly named ***Kimura Associates KK***. Around the same time on November 25, 2019, Kimura Associates Group Japan acquired ***Living Books***, a series of animated interactive read-along storybook adventures developed by Brøderbund Software and Random House, part of Random House-Kimura-Brøderbund Software Organization, LLC. Yoshihisa Kimura commissioned a new logo for the Living Books series during the acquisition of Living Books from Kimura Associates Group Japan.

### Mid-2023 to the present: Acquisition of Random House-Kimura-Brøderbund Software Organization, Kimura-Shaw era begins

On April 28, 2023, it was announced that the *Kimura-Shaw Company* planned to acquire ***Random House-Kimura-Brøderbund Software Organization*** for $40 million. The acquisition was aimed to enhance Kimura-Shaw's presence in the American market and expand their software offerings.

From April 28, 2023, to May 8, 2023, the two companies worked on the merger plans. Kimura-Shaw promised to retain all key employees of Random House-Kimura-Brøderbund Software Organization, and the former CEO of Random House-Kimura-Brøderbund Software Organization, Iwamoto David Kimura, was appointed as the new Chief Innovation Officer of Kimura-Shaw. Integration of the two companies' portfolios was also discussed.

The merger resulted in the creation of new jobs within the Kimura-Shaw Company. The company expanded its workforce to accommodate the increased workload, and new hires were made across various departments.

On June 18, 2023, ***Kimura Associates Group Japan Holdings KK*** was renamed to ***Kimura-Shaw Software and Gaming, Inc.*** under its new parent company, The Kimura-Shaw Company. The name change was part of Kimura-Shaw's effort to consolidate its global brand and presence. The company's headquarters were shifted to Toronto, Canada, and a new office was set up in Orlando, Florida, to better serve the American market. Peterson Hackett was appointed as the CEO of Kimura-Shaw.

Kimura-Shaw Software and Gaming, Inc. no longer operates as a public KK and operates as a subsidiary of The Kimura-Shaw Company. The change was necessary to align the company's operations with Kimura-Shaw's overall strategy and ensure greater control over its operations. The restructuring has been successful, and Kimura-Shaw Software and Gaming, Inc. continues to be a leading player in the software and gaming industry.

## Slogans

#### **Japan**

* ゲームの最初 (The first in gaming; April 7, 1910 - May 26, 1960)
* 我々の名前です (It's our name; May 30, 1960 - October 10, 1982)
* ベストサービス、力が強く (Stronger powers for best service; October 11, 1982 - April 4, 2018)
* リアルタイムゲーミングの未来へ (To the future of real-time gaming; April 5, 2018 - April 28, 2023)

#### **United States**

* *Fun at its finest* (November 20, 1947 - September 20, 1975)
* *No one does it better like Kimura* (May 20, 1976 - March 26, 1982)
* *Gaming to the next level* (March 28, 1982 - December 4, 1997)
* *The next generation of software* (December 6, 1997 - June 25, 2020)
* *Sharing pieces of nostalgic memories together* (June 26, 2020 - June 18, 2023)
* *With Kimura-Shaw, all things are possible* (June 18, 2023-present)