Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社ソニー・ミュージックエンタテインメント Hepburn: Kabushiki gaisha Sonī Myūjikku Entateinmento, often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, stylized as SonyMusic in television commercial messages and also known as Sony Music Japan for short) is Sony's music arm in Japan. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Corporation and independent from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry.Its subsidiaries including the anime production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in January 1997 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid 90's producing