The company was founded on October 1, 1960, as . From 1962, it licensed Columbia (UK) titles for release in Japan. After an injection of capital by Capitol EMI, EMI acquired 50% of the company in October 1973, and the name was changed to
Toshiba EMI Limited. On October 3, 1994, the equity ratio of the company was changed, in which EMI obtained 55% with Toshiba owning the remaining 45%. On June 30, 2007, Toshiba Corporation sold the remaining 45% stake in the company to EMI, giving EMI full ownership of the company. The name was then changed to
EMI Music Japan, reflecting Toshiba's divestiture from the business. In 2012, EMI Music Japan and
Universal Music Group's
Japanese branch was scheduled to hold a corporate swap in response to the
merger by January 15, 2013, with Kazuhiko Koike serving as EMIJ's president. On April 1, 2013, EMI Music Japan was officially absorbed into Universal Music Japan, became defunct as a company and was renamed to
EMI Records Japan. The label continued to use the
TOCT catalog code until October 2013, when it started to use the
TYCT catalog code. The official website was shut down as of October 23, 2013. After the dissolution and absorption, some of the former EMI staff and executives have been into different companies away from Universal Music. Then-executive producer San-e Ichii was named the managing director of Japan Content Expansion Department. Kazuhiko Koike (also former CEO of Universal Music Japan) has stepped down from his position as CEO by the end of 2013, nine months after the merger, and became non-executive chairman by the beginning of 2014. He was replaced by Naoshi Fujikura.
Advertising slogan EMI Music Japan's present slogan is
"Music for all, All for music". ==Labels==