Hanrei Times Holdings

What Hanrei Times Holdings does

Hanrei Times Holdings Co., Ltd. (判例タイムズホールディングス株式会社) is a Tokyo-based private holding company that has operated in Japanese legal publishing since 1948 (Showa 23), founded shortly after the establishment of Japan's Supreme Court. Through its wholly owned operating subsidiary Hanrei Times Co., Ltd. (株式会社判例タイムズ社), the group publishes the monthly legal magazine 'Hanrei Times' (判例タイムズ), special edition volumes ('Bessatsu Hanrei Times'), and specialized legal books targeted at legal practitioners. The product portfolio extends beyond print into digital via 'Hanrei Times Archives' (判例タイムズアーカイブス), an internet-based electronic delivery service that provides subscribers with electronic access to the magazine's accumulated court case analyses and academic papers. Electronic editions are also distributed through the Fujisan Magazine Service online bookstore platform.

The company's customers are Japanese legal practitioners — lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and legal scholars — who require ongoing access to court case information and practical scholarly analyses for their professional work. Revenue is generated through recurring magazine subscriptions, specialized book sales, and subscription access to the digital archive service, with the holding company earning its income through group strategy and management of its operating subsidiaries. The group is registered in Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo with 90 million yen of capital and remains privately held with no disclosed external investors or parent entity.

The group adopted its current holding company structure in October 2015, when the original Hanrei Times Co., Ltd. split into the parent entity and two operating subsidiaries. In February 2020, the digital archive service was consolidated under the main operating subsidiary and rebranded from 'Legal Archives' to 'Hanrei Times Archives'. The group's stated mission is to deliver high-quality legal information services to professionals across Japan through monthly magazines, books, and internet-based delivery.

Name

Hanrei Times Holdings

Legal name

判例タイムズホールディングス株式会社 (Hanrei Times Holdings Co., Ltd.)

Website

https://hantahd.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

1948

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Hanrei Times Holdings is a Tokyo-based private holding company founded in 1948 that, through subsidiary Hanrei Times Co., Ltd., publishes the monthly Japanese legal magazine 'Hanrei Times' along with specialized legal books and the 'Hanrei Times Archives' digital delivery service for lawyers, judges, and prosecutors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Magazine and Publication Sales: Publishing monthly magazine '判例タイムズ' and specialized legal publications including '別冊判例タイムズ' (special issues) for legal practitioners. Revenue generated through magazine subscriptions and book sales.

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Hanrei Times Holdings is the parent company of the Hanrei Times Group, which publishes the monthly legal magazine 'Hanrei Times' (判例タイムズ) containing court case analyses and practical legal papers for legal practitioners. The group also publishes special edition volumes (Bessatsu Hanrei Times), specialized legal books, and provides an internet-based legal information delivery service called 'Hanrei Times Archives' that offers electronic access to historical case reports and academic papers.

Product overview

Hanrei Times Holdings operates as a holding company for the Hanrei Times Group, which provides legal information services through an integrated portfolio of publications and digital platforms. The core offering is the monthly magazine '判例タイムズ' (Hanrei Times), published since 1948, along with specialized legal books. Digital services include '判例タイムズアーカイブス', an internet-based legal information delivery service, distributed via the Fujisan Magazine Service online platform. The group also publishes '別冊判例タイムズ' (special editions) as supplementary products. The portfolio combines print publications (magazines and books) with electronic delivery services to serve legal practitioners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• 判例タイムズアーカイブス (Hanrei Times Archives): Internet-based legal information delivery service providing electronic access to case studies and papers from Hanrei Times magazine
• 判例タイムズ (Hanrei Times)
• 別冊判例タイムズ (Bessatsu Hanrei Times)

Products and services

• Hanrei Times (判例タイムズ) Monthly legal magazine published since 1948 featuring case reports from courts across Japan and practical legal papers, targeted at legal professionals including lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and legal scholars.
• Bessatsu Hanrei Times (別冊判例タイムズ) Special edition publications and supplementary volumes of the Hanrei Times legal magazine series, providing in-depth coverage of specific legal topics for legal practitioners.
• Legal Specialized Books (法律専門書) Practical law books for legal practitioners, including specialized legal publications covering case analyses, legal theory, and practical commentary, intended for lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and legal scholars.
• Hanrei Times Archives (判例タイムズアーカイブス) Internet-based legal information delivery service providing electronic access to historical case reports, judgment analyses, and academic papers published in Hanrei Times and related publications, designed for legal professionals needing searchable digital access to the archive.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Dai-ichi Hoki (第一法規): Specialist Japanese publisher focused on legal, regulatory, and compliance reference materials including statutes, commentaries, and practical guides. Competes with Hanrei Times in the practitioner-facing legal reference segment and has a comparable niche, content-led business model.
• Yuhikaku Publishing (有斐閣): One of Japan's leading legal and academic publishers, producing legal commentaries, textbooks, and scholarly journals for the same legal professional audience that Hanrei Times serves. Directly comparable product set (legal books, journals, reference works) and Japanese-market focus make it the closest domestic peer.
• Seibundo (成文堂): Japanese publisher specializing in legal books, treatises, and scholarly legal works. Comparable niche positioning around professional and academic legal publishing with a domestic-only customer base.
• Shoji Homu Kenkyusho (商事法務): Publisher of the long-running 'Shoji Homu' journal covering commercial law and corporate legal practice in Japan. Targets the same legal practitioner and corporate counsel segments with subscription-based periodicals, mirroring Hanrei Times' magazine-plus-books offering.
• Hogakushoin (法学書院): Long-established Japanese legal publisher producing law journals, case reporters, and legal textbooks. Comparable focus on practitioner and academic readers, with a similar print-plus-electronic distribution approach, including the Hogaku Online electronic platform.

Broad incumbents

• TKC Corporation: Japanese information services group operating TKC Law.com, a comprehensive legal database used by Japanese law firms, with deep enterprise integrations and analytics. Broader and larger than Hanrei Times, but targets overlapping legal practitioner customers in Japan.
• LexisNexis Japan (RELX): Global legal information provider with a Japanese subsidiary offering case law, statutes, and journal content to Japanese legal practitioners. A broad incumbent whose Japanese legal database competes head-to-head with Hanrei Times' Hanrei Times Archives electronic service in the same enterprise customer segment.
• Westlaw Japan (Thomson Reuters): Operates one of Japan's leading online legal research databases covering case law, statutes, and journals, including commentary that overlaps with Hanrei Times' content. A larger, better-capitalized incumbent with a horizontal offering that competes with Hanrei Times' digital archive service for the same Japanese legal professional segment.
• Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory: Global legal and regulatory publishing group offering case law, compliance, and practice tools that compete for the same professional legal reader budget as Hanrei Times. Represents the international incumbent benchmark for legal information services and potential strategic acquirer.

Emerging players

• Yoshikyo (良興社): Japanese provider of electronic legal information services with a focus on digital case-law and statute delivery to legal professionals. Smaller and more digitally native than Hanrei Times, it represents an emerging niche competitor pressing on the same practitioner audience through online channels.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hanrei Times Holdings