Founding Pioneer Corporation founded the in March 1981 to produce LaserDisc players in Japan. The LaserDisc Corporation changed its name to in 1989 as part of an attempt to branch off into the anime,
film, and
music industries. In December 1985, Pioneer LDC made an effort to expand into the North American business, by establishing a subsidiary in the region named
LaserDisc Corporation of America in an effort to consolidate the Pioneer Video and Pioneer Audio units, who maintained the Pioneer Artists label, which was initially based near New Jersey, following the introduction of a combined CD/laserdisc player. In late 1991, Pioneer LDC established a European division, Pioneer LDCE (short for LaserDisc Corporation of Europe), hoping to revive interest of Laserdiscs in the European market after
Philips' Laserdisc players flopped in Europe. Around the same time, the company begin licensing titles from
Guild Film Distribution to release 140 films to Laserdisc for the
United Kingdom market, and additionally licensed titles from VCL Communications/
Carolco Pictures to release 20 titles to the
German market. In 1992, LaserDisc released their first anime title
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki.
Sale to NBC Universal logo (used from 1996 to 2011), used from 2009 to 2013 On November 12, 2008, Dentsu announced that it was selling 80.1% of its ownership in the company to
NBC Universal's Universal Pictures International Entertainment (UPIE), who planned to merge the company with its Universal Pictures Japan division—which had no longer theatrically distributed Universal Pictures films in Japan, having delegated its theatrical distribution tasks to
Toho subsidiary Toho-Towa since the dissolution of
United International Pictures Japan in 2007—to form a new company. The merger later closed, with the new company known as . On December 9, 2013, the company once again changed its name to NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan LLC. On February 17, 2013, they made a partnership with
Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to distribute their anime titles directly in Australia and New Zealand.
Purchase of Paramount Japan On January 1, 2016, Paramount Japan was purchased by NBCUniversal and dissolved shortly afterwards. This was due to
Paramount Pictures establishing a joint-venture with Toho-Towa named Towa Pictures Company Limited, which would distribute Paramount's films in Japan. On July 12, 2017, they announced a partnership with
Crunchyroll to co-produce anime with "international appeal". Since July 1, 2025,
Happinet has been the exclusive manufacturer and seller of NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan's home video releases. Due to Happinet striking a similar deal with Paramount, NBCUEJ ended Japanese home video distribution of Paramount content the day prior. == References ==