Namco Bandai is the Japanese holding company for Namco Bandai Group, formed from the merger of Namco and Bandai. It has interests in toys, video and arcade games and amusement facilities. The new entity was founded on September 29, 2005. Bandai officially purchased Namco although both parties have equal power in group decisions. All group companies’ cultures are announced to be respected while synergy is encouraged. Under the holding company Namco Bandai Group companies are managed by five strategic business units (SBUs) and the Affiliated Business Group.

Bandai is currently the world’s third largest producer of toys. Prior to the merger, Bandai owned Sunrise, a Japanese animation company, which became a subsidiary of NBHD following the merger.

NBHD also fully acquired developers Banpresto (which will be absorbed into Namco Bandai Games on April 1, 2008) and Namco Tales Studio since the merger. Formerly, both were partially owned by Bandai and Namco respectively.

On March 31, 2006, Namco and Bandai’s video game operations merged into Namco Bandai Games Inc. (NBGI). On the same day a NBHD subsidiary was created and the Namco Ltd. corporate name, its amusement facility divisions, and incubator divisions were transferred to the new subsidiary