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 Mitsui Main Building andNihonbashi Mitsui Tower | |
| Company type | Keiretsu |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1673; 352 years ago (1673) (foundation ofMitsukoshi) |
| Founder | Mitsui Takatoshi |
| Headquarters | Japan  |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Food and beverage, industrial products |
| Services | Financial services, real estate, retail, shipping, and logistics |
Number of employees | 814,0000 |
| Website | www |
Mitsui Group (三井グループ,Mitsui Gurūpu) is a group of autonomous Japanesemultinational companies.
The major companies of the group includeMitsui & Co. (general trading company),Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation,Nippon Paper Industries,Pokka Sapporo Holdings,Toray Industries,Mitsui Chemicals,Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings,Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings,Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding,Mitsui O.S.K. Lines andMitsui Fudosan.[1]
Founded byMitsui Takatoshi (1622–1694), who was the fourth son of a shopkeeper[2] inMatsusaka, in what becameMie prefecture. From his shop, called Echigoya (越後屋), Mitsui Takatoshi's father originally soldmiso and ran apawn shop. The family would later open a second shop inEdo (modernTokyo).
Takatoshi moved to Edo when he was 14 years old, and later his older brother joined him. Sent back to Matsusaka by his brother, Takatoshi waited for 24 years until his older brother died before he could take over the family shop, Echigoya. He opened a new branch in 1673;[3] a largegofukuya (kimono shop) inNihonbashi, a district in the heart of Edo. The genesis of Mitsui's business was in theEnpō era, which was anengō meaning "Prolonged Wealth".
In time, the gofukuya division separated from Mitsui, and becameMitsukoshi. Traditionally, gofukuyas provided products made to order; a visit was made to the customer's house (typically a person of high social class or who was successful in business), an order taken, then fulfilled. The system of accountancy was called "margin transaction". Mitsui changed this by producing products first, then selling them directly at his shop for cash. This was then an unfamiliar mode of operation in Japan. Even as the shop began providing dry goods to the government of the city of Edo, cash sales were not yet a widespread business practice.
Edo's government had struck a business deal withOsaka. Osaka would sell crops and other material to pay its land tax. The money was then sent to Edo—but moving money was dangerous in middlefeudal Japan. In 1683, the shogunate granted permission formoney exchanges (ryōgaeten) to be established in Edo.[4] The Mitsui "exchange shops" facilitated transfers while mitigating risks.
After theMeiji Restoration, Mitsui was among the enterprises that were able to expand to becomezaibatsu not simply because they were already big and rich at the start of modern industrial development. Firms like Mitsui andSumitomo were led by non-family managers such as Minomura Rizaemon, who guided the business by accurately forecasting the coming political and economic situations, by acquaintance with high-ranking government officials or politicians, and bold investment.[5]
Mitsui's main business in the early period was drapery, finance, and trade, the first two being the businesses it inherited from theEdo period. It entered into mining when it acquired a mine as collateral from a loan it had made, partly because it could buy a mine cheaply from the government, Mitsui then diversified to become the biggest business in pre-war Japan. The diversification was mainly into related fields to take advantage of accumulated capabilities; for instance, the trading company entered into chemicals to attain forward integration.[6]
On July 1, 1876, Mitsui Bank, Japan's first private bank, was founded withMasuda Takashi (1848–1938) as its president. Mitsui Bank, which following a merger with Taiyō-Kobe Bank in the mid-1980s became part ofSakura Bank, survives as part of theSumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. During the early 20th century, Mitsui was one of the largestzaibatsu, operating in numerous fields.
Mitsui Bank became the holding company of the Mitsui zaibatsu from 1876. It was joined as an ultimate parent company byMitsui & Co. andMitsui Mining in 1900, with various industrial concerns owned by various combinations of these companies and their subsidiaries.[7]
Likewise, Mitsui invested in maritime transportation to support its trading activities as well as invest in passenger transportation, first with the creation in 1878, of Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK), which was merged with Mitsui Steamship in 1964, to becomeMitsui OSK Lines (MOL), which became one of the largest ocean shipping groups in the world.
When theUnited Kingdom withdrew from thegold standard in 1931, during the height of theGreat Depression, Mitsui Bank and Mitsui & Co. were found to have speculated around the transaction. This raised a political furor in Japan and resulted in the assassination of Mitsui executiveDan Takuma.[7]
During theSecond World War, Mitsui employed Americanprisoners of war as slave laborers, some of whom were maimed by Mitsui employees.[8]
In 1947 and 1948, theSupreme Commander Allied Powers pressed the Japanese government to dismantle the ten largestzaibatsu conglomerates, including Mitsui. The Mitsui Group, broken into many separate companies, reorganized itself as a horizontal coalition of independent companies in the 1950s, once theoccupation of Japan had ended and some of the smaller companies were allowed to re-coalesce. The central firms in thekeiretsu becameMitsui Bank andMitsui & Co.[7]
Mitsui lagged somewhat behind its rivalsMitsubishi andSumitomo Group in reorganization. Mitsui Bank, which should have been the mainstay and principal capital provider of the group, declined in size due to the collapse of theImperial Bank after the war, which resulted in reduced cohesion of the conglomerate. Many companies that were once part of the Mitsui Group have become independent or tied to other conglomerates. Specifically,Toshiba,Toyota Motors, andSuntory, once part of the Mitsui Group, became independent, with the Toyota Group becoming a conglomerate in its own right.
Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI Corporation) is now considered to be part of theMizuho Group, and many companies in theSumitomo Mitsui Financial Group are more closely tied to theSumitomo Group than the Mitsui Group. As of 2021[update] there were signs thatMitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and theMitsubishi Group could be taking over other parts of the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Mitsukoshi merged intoIsetan, a major department store with close ties to theBank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, to form Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings in April 2008.
Companies associated with the Mitsui keiretsu includeMitsui & Co.,Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings,Japan Steel Works,Mitsui Chemicals, Mitsui Construction Co.,Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding,Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsui-gold,Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd.,Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. (MOECO),Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Mitsui Petrochemical Industries Ltd, Mitsui-Soko,Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group,Nippon Paper Industries, Pacific Coast Recycling,Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation,Taiheiyo Cement,TBS Holdings,Toray Industries, Tri-net Logistics Management, and Mitsui Commodity Risk Management (MCRM).
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