Under supervision (confirmation) · Designated 2026-11-06 JPX notice
Research

Shobunsha: Travel-guide and map publisher pursuing a cost-of-capital plan

Shobunsha Holdings, Inc. (9475) · Published 2026-10-25 · Beluuga AI Research Team · Independent research

Not investment advice or a solicitation. See Important disclosures below.

Business overview

  • Shobunsha Holdings is a holding company, in place since April 2020, for a map and guidebook publisher founded in 1960. Its best-known products are the Mapple travel-guide brand, including the Mapple Magazine regional travel series and the long-running Yama to Kogen Chizu hiking maps.
  • It reports four segments. Media covers printed books, e-books and apps, magazine and web advertising, and brand licensing. Solutions sells the group's map and guide databases and related systems, such as car-navigation data for police and fire services. Sales Agency earns commissions as the contract window for government data-production work. Real Estate leases out group-owned land and buildings.
  • Operations run through wholly owned subsidiaries Shobunsha (publishing), Mapple (map data and solutions), Mapple On (apps and web advertising) and Shobunsha Creative (database production). BEASTAR, a majority-owned social-media marketing company consolidated from October 2025, is reported in Solutions.
  • Sales are almost entirely domestic. The two book distributors Tohan and Nippon Shuppan Hanbai are each disclosed as major customers. Fiscal years end in March and have been twelve months long throughout (see Performance & Balance).

Investment case

  1. In June 2025 the company published a response on management conscious of the cost of capital and share price, together with a Management Action Plan 2025. The plan has five pillars: accelerating growth, building a base for growth, improving profitability and efficiency, strengthening the financial base, and dialogue with capital markets.
  2. The company has begun acting on that plan. It announced a share repurchase on November 10, 2025, and treasury shares rose again during the first quarter to June 2026. Its articles allow the board to approve buybacks without a shareholder vote.
  3. The group has made two acquisitions under the plan. It bought BEASTAR in October 2025, and in February 2026 it took over the monthly history magazine Rekishijin from ABC Ark. The first group-published issue appeared in the first quarter to June 2026.
  4. The annual securities report for the year to March 2026 shows cash and cash equivalents well above interest-bearing debt, as well as investment securities and owned land and buildings. Part of the property is now leased to outside tenants, and the leased area expanded in the year (see Performance & Balance).

Bear case

  1. Commercial publications still account for most group sales, and most of those sales go through the two large distributors. The company states that rising delivery costs and changes in book distribution could significantly affect its business.
  2. Profit for the year to March 2026 was boosted by a reassessment of deferred tax assets, which the company describes as a non-cash accounting adjustment. Its forecast for the year to March 2027 shows lower net income than the prior year (see Performance & Balance).
  3. The Solutions segment, which holds the core database business, recorded an operating loss for the year to March 2026. Subsidiary Mapple had negative net worth at March 31, 2026, and impairment losses on software were booked in both of the last two years.
  4. The first quarter to June 2026 showed a larger operating loss than a year earlier. Media segment results weakened as higher travel costs, linked to the weak yen and the Middle East conflict, held back sales of the group's main travel magazines.

Catalysts

  • Second-quarter results for the period to September 2026. The company forecasts a first-half loss and an operating profit for the full year, and kept the forecast it published on May 15, 2026.
  • Progress reports on the Management Action Plan 2025, including further share repurchases, M&A and the plan's financial-base and capital-market-dialogue pillars.
  • Integration of Rekishijin and BEASTAR into the Media and Solutions segments. Also the stated dividend policy: a year-end dividend was paid for the year to March 2026, and the same year-end dividend with no interim payment is forecast for the year to March 2027.

Key risks

  • Map data depends on base maps issued by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. The company lists restrictions on their use, or free provision of similar data by the authority, as a risk with potentially significant impact.
  • Under the publishing industry's returns system, distributors and bookstores can return unsold books. Returns above the expected rate would reduce gross margin faster than sales.
  • The databases may become obsolete through technological change, including generative AI and free web and app maps, before the continuing investment in them is recovered. The company also cites system outages and cyberattacks.
  • MTI Ltd. holds voting rights in the company as an 'other affiliated company' and has business dealings with it. The president is also listed individually among the major shareholders and chairs both the six-member board, which has two outside directors, and the compensation advisory committee (see Shareholders).

Trading liquidity

Median daily trading value US$0.01mn
Average daily volume 5,990 shares

2025-10-08 to 2026-10-23 (250 trading days). Trading value is daily closing price × daily volume on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Assumptions

  • Financial figures on this page come from beluuga.ai's daily data set; trading liquidity is measured over the period shown. We do not use consensus estimates.
  • Results are seasonal: the first quarter has shown losses in both of the last two years, while the full year has been profitable. Quarterly figures should not be annualized.
  • The first-quarter earnings release was not reviewed by the auditor and does not include a cash-flow statement.
  • Qualitative statements are taken from the annual securities report for the year to March 2026 and the first-quarter earnings release for the year to March 2027.

This is independent research. No company paid for or reviewed it. We do not publish ratings, price targets or buy/sell views. Figures on the other slides of this page come from beluuga.ai's daily data set.

Important disclosures

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Overview
Information & Communication

Shobunsha Holdings,Inc.

Shobunsha Holdings operates through four business segments: Media (publication and sale of printed maps, travel guidebooks, e-books, and apps under the 'Mapple' brand, along with magazine and web advertising and licensing of brand/trademark rights), Solutions (sale of proprietary map and guide databases and related system products/solutions through subsidiary Mapple Co., Ltd.), Sales Agency (acting as a contract window for government and public sector clients outsourcing data production work, earning commission income), and Real Estate (effective utilization of the group's tangible fixed assets including land and buildings). The group leverages its core competency in geographic and travel guide database assets accumulated over six decades of map publishing.

Market Cap
US$84.0M
¥13.4B
EV
US$23.7M
¥3.79B
StockUS$4.69(¥749)▲+0.00%
US$1 = ¥159.70 (2026-11-12)
LTM EV/EBITDA
7.4
x
LTM EV/EBIT
10.3
x
LTM PER
12.0
x
LTM PBR
0.9
x
2026-08-25 closing price basis: ranked #145 in beluuga.ai's "Japanese listed companies with negative Enterprise Value" ranking (simplified EV ≈ ¥-0B).
Stock vs TOPIX (1Y, base=100)vs TOPIX ▲+60.5%pt
100123
Nov 13, 25 – Nov 13, 26StockTOPIX
1Apr 1, 26Hopes of Mideast de-escalation as Trump signals end to Iran strikes
2Nov 9, 26MBO tender offer launched by MSE at ¥752/share (Nov 9 - Dec 21, 2026)
3Nov 10, 26MBO tender offer by MSE at 752 yen/share
MC → EV Bridge
US$84.0M¥13.4BMarket CapUS$3.05M¥0.49B+ DebtUS$42.3M¥6.75B− CashUS$21.4M¥3.42B− Inv. Sec.US$0.36M¥0.06B+ NCIUS$23.7M¥3.79BEV
AI Briefing
Mapple publisher Shobunsha is going private via MBO: MSE (Kuroda-affiliated vehicle) tendering at US$4.71 (¥752)/share, with squeeze-out to follow, backed by target board agreement. FY26/3 revenue US$42.0M (¥6.7B), OP US$3.13M (¥0.5B) (7.1%), though Solutions posted an operating loss and Q1 FY27/3 losses widened on weak travel-magazine sales. Research coverage frames this against a 2025 cost-of-capital action plan (buybacks, Rekishijin/BEASTAR bolt-ons) now overtaken by the going-private process, with distributor dependence and database-obsolescence risk flagged as ongoing structural issues.
Performance & Balance
Revenue 5Y (US$)
US$28.9M¥4.62B'22/3US$34.8M¥5.55B'23/3US$40.1M¥6.41B'24/3US$39.2M¥6.26B'25/3US$42.1M¥6.73B'26/3
EBITDA 5Y (US$)
-US$7.58M¥-1.21B'22/3US$1.81M¥0.29B'23/3US$3.69M¥0.59B'24/3US$2.09M¥0.33B'25/3US$4.15M¥0.66B'26/3
Net Income 5Y (US$)
-US$9.88M¥-1.58B'22/3US$0.19M¥0.03B'23/3US$11.1M¥1.77B'24/3US$3.39M¥0.54B'25/3US$7.58M¥1.21B'26/3
Capital Structure
97%
EquityD/E 0.03xDebt
Liquidity vs Debt 5Y (US$)▲ Net Cash
CashInv. Sec.Debt
US$38.9M¥6.21BUS$4.82M¥0.77B'22/3US$42.8M¥6.84BUS$4.82M¥0.77B'23/3US$56.1M¥8.95BUS$4.82M¥0.77B'24/3US$58.5M¥9.35BUS$4.01M¥0.64B'25/3US$59.7M¥9.53BUS$3.07M¥0.49B'26/3
Business Segments
2026/03 · US$ (¥B)
68%
Media Business
Revenue
US$29.7M(¥4.75B)
Segment profit
US$1.69M(¥0.27B)5.7%
28%
Solution Business
Revenue
US$12.4M(¥1.98B)
Segment profit
-US$0.20M(¥-0.03B)-1.6%
2.1%
Real Estate Business
Revenue
US$0.90M(¥0.14B)
Segment profit
US$0.41M(¥0.06B)45.2%
1.4%
Property Agent Business
Revenue
US$0.63M(¥0.10B)
Segment profit
US$0.43M(¥0.07B)68.5%
Adjustments
Revenue
-US$1.56M(¥-0.25B)
Segment profit
US$0.65M(¥0.10B)
Shareholders
Top 10 hold 69.3%
1
MTI Ltd.
30.08%
2
MSE Co., Ltd.
19.14%
3
Shigeo KURODA
10.49%
4
Hikari Tsushin KK Investment Limited Partnership
5.14%
5
Shobunsha Holdings,Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Association
1.16%
6
Founder Mapple Co., Ltd.
1.00%
7
UHPartners 2 Investment Limited Liability Partnership
0.87%
8
MUFG Bank, Ltd.
0.68%
9
Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation
0.41%
10
Seiichi KAWAMURA
0.36%
Management
6 officers
Shigeo KURODA
Representative Director, President
Mar 1992 Joined the Company Jul 1998 General Manager, GIS Sales Division, the Company Mar 1999 Representative Director, President, N.S.T. Co., Ltd. Apr 1999 General Manager, Development Division, the Company Jun 1999 Director, General Manager, Development Division, the Company Dec 1999 Representative Director, President, KHK Investment Co., Ltd. Dec 2000 Director, General Manager, Digital Content Business Division, the Company Jun 2002 Managing Director, General Manager, Digital Content Business Division, the Company Dec 2002 Chairman and Representative Director, Nippon Computer Graphic Co., Ltd. (now SHOBUNSHA Creative Co., Ltd.) Jun 2004 Managing Director, the Company Oct 2005 Representative Director, President, the Company (current) May 2017 President, SHOBUNSHA HAWAII CORPORATION Jun 2017 President, SHOBUNSHA GUAM CORPORATION Jul 2017 Representative Director, President, Mapple Spring Co., Ltd. (current) Aug 2017 President, SHOBUNSHA SINGAPORE PTE. LTD. Dec 2017 Representative Director and Representative Executive Officer, the Company Oct 2019 Representative Director, Mapple Co., Ltd.
1965-07-10
Hiroyuki KATO
Director
Apr 2007 Joined the Company Dec 2017 Executive Officer, General Manager, Administration Division, the Company Apr 2019 Executive Officer, General Manager, General Administration Division, the Company Jan 2020 Director, General Manager, General Administration Division, the Company Apr 2020 Director, General Manager, Administration Division, the Company (current)
1974-06-20
Tsugunori UEHARA
Director
Sep 2014 Established Guruyaku Co., Ltd., Representative Director, President Mar 2016 Joined Travelers Co., Ltd. Feb 2017 Joined the Company Apr 2017 Executive Officer, General Manager, Digital Media Business Division, the Company Dec 2017 General Manager, President's Office, the Company Jun 2018 Director, the Company Sep 2018 President, GUAM OCEAN PARK CORPORATION (now MMS GUAM Corporation) Jun 2019 Managing Director, the Company Oct 2019 Representative Director, President, MEGURU Co., Ltd. (now BUYMA TRAVEL Co., Ltd.) (current) Jun 2021 Director, the Company (current)
1968-09-08
Shinma IIZUKA
Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member)
Mar 1986 Joined the Company Apr 2012 General Manager, Digital Content Sales Division, the Company Apr 2013 General Manager, Solution Sales Division, the Company Apr 2017 Director, SHOBUNSHA Creative Co., Ltd. Dec 2017 Internal Audit Office, the Company Jun 2018 Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member), the Company (current)
1962-11-26
Sosuke SEKI
Outside Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member)
Apr 1993 Registered as attorney-at-law Apr 1993 Joined Motobayashi, Aoki & Chiba Law Office Jun 2003 Audit & Supervisory Board Member, the Company Jan 2004 Opened Ginza Prime Law Office (current) Jun 2016 Outside Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member), the Company (current)
1966-06-29
Yuichiro KUWANO
Outside Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member)
Apr 1993 Registered as attorney-at-law Apr 1993 Joined Hamada & Matsumoto Law Office Sep 2003 Opened Kottoori Law Office Jun 2005 Audit & Supervisory Board Member, the Company Jun 2016 Outside Director (Audit and Supervisory Committee Member), the Company (current) Mar 2018 Opened Takagicho Law Office Sep 2024 Opened Tsurumakicho Law Office (current)
1966-05-18
Large Shareholding Reports
MSE Co., Ltd.
2026-11-09
18.86%→18.86%
Annual report (as of 2026-09-30): 19.14%
MTI Ltd.
2026-11-06
29.65%→29.65%
Annual report (as of 2026-09-30): 30.08%
Koutsushin Co., Ltd.
2026-04-20
4.88%→5.07%
Koutsushin Co., Ltd.
2026-04-20
4.88%
Correction filing (name/detail fix only) — ratio carried over from the original filing
Koutsushin Co., Ltd.
2025-10-20
4.88%
Disclosures
Tender Offer
2026-11-06
Primary Source Filings
EDINET
2026-11-12
Semi-Annual Securities Report
Period: Apr 2026 – Mar 2027
EDINET
2026-11-09
Large Shareholding Report
EDINET
2026-11-09
意見表明報告書
EDINET
2026-11-09
公開買付届出書
TDnet
2026-11-06
Tender Offer
EDINET
2026-11-06
Large Shareholding Report
TDnet
2026-11-06
Q2 Earnings Flash
FY ending Mar 2027
TDnet
2026-11-06
業績予想の修正
FY ending Mar 2027
TDnet
2026-08-07
Q1 Earnings Flash
FY ending Mar 2027
EDINET
2026-06-23
Annual Securities Report
Period: Apr 2025 – Mar 2026
TDnet
2026-05-15
業績予想の修正
TDnet
2026-05-15
Full-Year Earnings Flash
FY ending Mar 2026
EDINETAmended
2026-04-20
Change Report
EDINET
2026-04-20
Large Shareholding Report
TDnet
2026-02-09
業績予想の修正
FY ending Mar 2026
TDnet
2026-02-09
Q3 Earnings Flash
FY ending Mar 2026
EDINET
2025-11-13
Semi-Annual Securities Report
Period: Apr 2025 – Mar 2026
TDnet
2025-11-07
業績予想の修正
FY ending Mar 2026
EDINET
2025-10-20
Large Shareholding Report
TDnet
2025-08-04
Q1 Earnings Flash
FY ending Mar 2026
EDINET
2025-06-27
Annual Securities Report
Period: Apr 2024 – Mar 2025
TDnet
2025-02-07
Q3 Earnings Flash
FY ending Mar 2025
EDINET
2024-11-13
Semi-Annual Securities Report
Period: Apr 2024 – Mar 2025
TDnet
2024-08-05
Q1 Earnings Flash
FY ending Mar 2025
EDINET
2024-06-27
Annual Securities Report
Period: Apr 2023 – Mar 2024
EDINET
2024-02-13
Quarterly Securities Report
Period: Oct 2023 – Dec 2023
EDINET
2023-11-13
Quarterly Securities Report
Period: Jul 2023 – Sep 2023
EDINET
2023-08-10
Quarterly Securities Report
Period: Apr 2023 – Jun 2023
EDINET
2023-06-29
Annual Securities Report
Period: Apr 2022 – Mar 2023
EDINET
2023-02-13
Quarterly Securities Report
Period: Oct 2022 – Dec 2022
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