Nihon Tarento Meikan (日本 タレント 名鑑, "Japan Talent Directory") is a Japanese illustrated annual directory of Japanese entertainers, or tarentos, issued by VIP Times Inc. that was first published in 1970. The directory's company established on 1969 and its current representative director is Mutsuko Igusa.
Overview
Genres of entertainers and their offices are described in many profiles which are active in Japan. It is adopted as a portal site of entertainer database.
It is first published on 1970 as Nihon Tarento Nenkan (日本 タレント 年鑑, "Japan Talent Yearbook").[1] It is renamed to Nihon Tarento Meikan from 1973.[1]
VIP Times Company is founded by Shigetaro Igusa who has an experience of television stations during his time at office, and felt the need of the photos, names, and agencies can be triggered in its first issue.[1]
History
VIP Time's predecessor Leisure Tsūshin-sha was established on 1968, which Shigetaro Igusa was appointed as representative director. It issued the leisure newspaper, VIP Times, that introduced attractions, historic sites, and entertainment industry news around Japan. It was issued until November 1986 which made 537 issues.[1]
On 1970, Nihon Tarento Nenkan (later renamed to Nihon Tarento Meikan from 1973) launched. The company's name changed into VIP Times Company on 1971. It was released in CD-ROM from 1995 to 2001.[1]
In June 2002, Mutsuko Igusa was later appointed as the representative director. In May 2004, the website Yahoo! Japan uses the company's profiles. Websites Goo and Infoseek uses the book's profiles on 2005.[1]
In April 2006, they started a service called Taleme Casting. The company later launched Nihon Tarento Meikan Kids & Junior on October. On 2008, websites Oricon, Fresh Eye, Engeki Life, Nippon TV, and MSN Japan also use their profiles. In December 2008, they launched the mobile site, Talent Prof, and ended on March 31, 2010. Websites BIGLOBE, Interactive Program Guide, and Fuji Television later uses its profiles on 2009. In June 2010, the website Will Media also uses its profiles.[1]