TheDKB Group (第一勧銀グループ,Dai'ichi Kangin Gurūpu) or theDai-Ichi Kangyo Group was the largestJapanesekeiretsu in the late 1990s.[1]
The group emerged afterWorld War II and coalesced around theDai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. Two of DKB's largest clients,Kawasaki Heavy Industries andFurukawa Electric, led their own respective corporate groups with a cross-supply relationship between the two. The Kawasaki and Furukawa groups agreed to begin holding presidents' meetings in 1966.[2]Itochu, which historically supplied Kawasaki with raw materials, became the maingeneral trading company for the combined group.[3]
The group's presidents began regular Sankin-kai (三金会) meetings in 1971. Also in that year, the group's name developed from the merger of Dai-Ichi Bank and Nippon Kangyo Bank.[1] In 1998, an announcement was made that the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank was to be merged withFuji Bank and theIndustrial Bank of Japan to formMizuho Financial Group.[4] The resulting group, which was established in September 2000,[5] was the largest banking group in the world with assets of 140 trillion yen.[4][6] The next few years saw a parallel consolidation of their keiretsu industrial partners[4] and saw the group grow to 150 trillion yen in assets (30%GDP).[5]