ANY kid growing up in Hawaii during the great Tokusatsu boom of the 70’s is familiar with the bright orange DENON labels adorning all the Japanese Superhero albums and singles as they were the company that put out all the theme songs and LPs of the Toei line of heroes.
Kikaider, Kikaider 0-1, Kamen Rider V3, Five Rangers, even Inazuman and ROBOCON, ALL of them came on this particular line, and over time we even began to think of DENON as exclusively attached to Kikaider and his cohorts, and even the fancy design with the name DENON made of these “power dots” made us think of Kikaider 0-1!But therre was one thing that always puzzled the more curious of us, and it’s the fact that the DENON logo was STICKERED onto the 45 record’s label. As nosey as we were, of course we couldn’t help trying to peel the DENON stickers off (as you can see by my failed childhood handiwork on my Goranger, Robocon and Kamen Rider V3 singles below), 
...but besides ruining our records, we were more confused when there was only a COLUMBIA label underneath. Why Did My Kikaider Records have a DENON sticker coving the Columbia Label? Why were they trying to “hide” it?
Well, we just had no idea, and for years as I grew up around tokusatsu fans, I’d ask around but NO ONE seemed to have any real idea- that is until a conversation on reddit about (of all things) a vintage Denon/Columbia LP set of WWII songs, where the subject of the DENON label came up and redditor mawnk informed:
The Denon logo on the labels is a ring-shaped sticker. The albums are actually on Columbia, but they weren't allowed to sell them as Columbia in the US, because Columbia is Columbia in the US - hence the sticker.
You'll see the same thing on imported Japanese Victor records - a sticker that changes the company name to either Nivico (Nippon Victor Company) or JVC (Japanese Victor Company).
Record company names got licensed to separate companies all over the world in the early years of the industry, creating chaos and confusion that continues to this day. We have our own example here in the US in the form of Decca, which was originally a partially-owned subsidiary of Decca Record Company in England, but got spun off as a separate company because of WWII. When Decca England decided to reenter the American market, they had to do it under the name London, even though Decca was their name originally.
Going the other way, in the UK CBS is Columbia, and Columbia is (er, was) EMI. And HMV has RCA's logo (or vice-versa), but it isn't RCA.
VERY interesting and informative and SUCH a weight off the eight year old boy inside of me who had continued to wonder about it even into adulthood!
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PS: Ya gotta love those YUSHA RAIDEEN stickers I stuck all over my Goranger singles! What a crafty kid I was!
You would have thought I'd have stuck it on my Raideen single, however, the Yusha Raideen 45 was one of those thin plastic flexidisc singles that came with a book...not suitable for stickers! NOW, it’s time to listen to some of these songs again!
