Konami

is a Japanese multinational entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casinos around the world and operates health and physical fitness clubs across Japan. Konami's video game franchises include Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania, Contra, Rocket Knight Adventures, Frogger, Tokimeki Memorial, Parodius, Gradius, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Suikoden, and eFootball. Additionally, Konami owns Bemani, known for Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania, as well as the assets of former game developer Hudson Soft, known for Bomberman, Adventure Island, Bonk, and Star Soldier. Konami is the nineteenth-largest game company in the world by revenue. Konami also publishes the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game. The company originated in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan, by Kagemasa Kōzuki, who remains the company's chairman. The name Konami is a portmanteau of the names of three founding members: Kagemasa Kōzuki, Yoshinobu Nakama, and Tatsuo Miyasako. Konami is headquartered in Tokyo. In the United States, Konami manages its video game business from Aviation Blvd, California and its casino gaming business from Paradise, Nevada. Its Australian gaming operations are in Sydney. As of March 2019, it owns 22 consolidated subsidiaries around the world. The company was founded on 21 March 1969 and was officially incorporated under the name Konami Industry Co., Ltd. on 19 March 1973. The company's founder and chairman, Kagemasa Kōzuki (also known as Kaz Kozuki), ran a jukebox rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka before transforming the business into a manufacturer of amusement machines for video arcades. Their first coin-operated video game was released in 1978, and they began exporting products to the United States the following year. Konami began to achieve success with arcade games in the early 1980s, starting with Scramble (1981), followed by hits such as Frogger (1981), Super Cobra (1981), Time Pilot (1982), Roc'n Rope (1983), Track & Field (1983), and Yie Ar Kung-Fu (1985).