The document discusses the history and development of zaibatsu in Japan. Zaibatsu refers to large family-controlled banking and industrial conglomerates that dominated the Japanese economy prior to World War II. The four major zaibatsu were Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda. After World War II, the Allied forces dissolved the zaibatsu. However, their influence can still be seen in modern Japanese companies that trace their origins to the original zaibatsu families and financial groups. While large conglomerates still exist, the tight family control of the zaibatsu era has been replaced by more horizontal keiretsu relationships.

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ZAIBATSU Prepared by:
John Carlo Castillo-Cabalit
AB History Student
© johncarlo_cabalit@yahoo.com

2. A little history the term
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zaibatsu
 The term zaibatsu was used in the 19th century
to refer to large family century family
controlled banking and industrial combines in
Japan.
 Currently, it is not used natively by Japanese
speakers for anything other than historical
discussions in reference to Edo and Meiji era
zaibatsu.

3. HISTORY AND
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DEVELOPMENT
 The domination of
various large
corporations by single
capitalist families
through stockholding M itsui
companies is known as
Zaibatsu. Before WWII, M itsubishi
the big four were:
S itom
um o
Yasuda

4. Four Large Zaibatsu
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 Mitsui
 Initially founded in the Edo period in 1673, when Takatoshi
Mitsui opened a fabric and Mitsui drapery store in
Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The store called Echigoya grew,
prospered, and developed in to what is now probably Japan’s
most prestigious store, the Mitsukoshi Department store.
 M itsui Exchange Shop
 Another success runs from by the Mitsui family.
Received the gold and silver business warranties from
the Edo Shogunate and became Mitsui Bank.
 In 1990, the bank merged with Taiyo Kobe Bank and
then, in 2002, combined with Sumitomo Bank, creating
one of the three largest financial groups in Japan, the
Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group.

5. Four Large Zaibatsu
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 S itom
um o
 Long history commencing in 1691 when Osaka copper trader Izumiya
opened a copper mine in Bessi in Iyo, now Ehime Prefecture in
Shikoku Island. Expanded its business into copper refining,
processing, and vending and finally transformed itself into a Zaibatsu
before the start of the World War II.
 Yasuda
 The Yasuda effort on banking was narrowed by the merger of eleven
Yasuda controlled banks into the Yasuda Bank in 1913. The post-
merger bank was by far the largest of all the zaibatsu banks. Yasuda
consolidated his empire in banking and finance, specializing in
backing small and medium-sized traders and industrialists.
 In 1880, Yasuda founded the Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Company.
In 1893, the Yasuda zaibatsu absorbed the Tokyo Fire Insurance
Company, later renamed the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance
Company.

6. Economic Domination
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 The Zaibatsu grew to govern the Japanese
economy and as they were incriminated in
Japan in criminated Japan’s war effort, the
GHQ (General Head Quarters) of the Allied
Powers in Japan dissolved them during the
occupation of Japan in 1945, declaring that the
Zaibatsu were a hotbed of militarism.

7. Formation of Industrial Groups
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 Industrial groups with no connection to former
Zaibatsu were also formed around banks. These
groups included those that surrounded the former
Daiichi Kangyo Bank, Sanwa Bank, and Fuji Bank.
 Companies within these groups also tended to
cooperate on the business front and have been an
important factor in Japan’s gasping economic
development since the war.

8. Industrial Groups expands their
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Keiretsu (Series or Subsidiary)
 By acquiring shares in, or dispatching
directors, to companies. Cross
shareholdings and the Keiretsu structure of
companies trading within their group have
been cited by the United States as one of
the signs of the closed state of Japan’s
markets to foreign businesses.

9. Recognition of financial markets
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 Daiichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank, and the
Industrial Bank of Japan merged and
became the Mizuho financial group.
 Sakura Bank, which was formerly Mitsui
Bank, and Sumitomo Bank, also come
together, and subsequently the Mitsubishi
Tokyo Financial Group merged with UFJ
Holdings, which was formerly Sanwa Bank
and Tokai Bank, thereby creating a new
realignment Japan’s industrial groups and

10. List of Zaibatsu
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Mitsui Group
Toyota
Toshiba
Fuji Film HD
Sapporo Beer
Suntory
Mitsukoshi
Mitsui and Co., Ltd.
Mitsui Fudosan Company, Limited

11. List of Zaibatsu
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Mitsubishi Group
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha
Kirin Brewery Company, Limited
Mitsubishi Company
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd
Nikon Corporation
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

12. List of Zaibatsu
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Sumitomo Group
Sumitomo Corporation
Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited
Asahi Breweries, Ltd
ITOCHU Corporation
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
Sumitomo Life Insurance Company
The Japan Research Institute, Limited
Sumitomo Realty & Development Co., Ltd

13. Popular Culture
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 The term zaibatsu has been used often in books,
comics, video games and films, referring to large,
(usually) threatening Japanese corporations, who are
often involved in dubious dealings and/or have
connections to the yakuza.
 Examples include the "Mishima Zaibatsu" which is
mentioned throughout the Tekken series, the "Zaibatsu"
criminal group in Grand Theft Auto 2, and various
writings of pioneer cyberpunk author William Gibson.
 In other cases zaibatsu are used simply to provide the
background for a character from an influential family,
such as in the case of the F4 in Boys before
Flowers who are the sons and heirs of the four (fictional)

14. Modern Day Influence
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 Today, the influence of the zaibatsu can still be seen in the
financial groups, institutions, and larger companies whose
origins reach back to the original zaibatsu, often sharing the
same original family names (for example, Sumitomo Mitsui
Banking Corporation). Kazuo Kawai, Japan's American
Interlude (University of Chicago Press).
 However, some argue that the old mechanisms of financial
and administrative control that zaibatsu once enjoyed have
been destroyed. Though large industrial conglomerates
continue to exist in Japan, the vertically-integrated chain of
command of the zaibatsu, culminating in control by a single
family, has now widely been displaced by the horizontal
relationships of association and coordination characteristic
of keiretsu meaning series or subsidiary.

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Thank you!!!
Have a great PALAKASAN
2012 and good luck with 2nd
exam!