Nan'yō Kōhatsu

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nan'yō Kōhatsu
IndustryStrategic development
Founded1921; 103 years ago (1921)
FounderHaruji Matsue
Headquarters
Japan
Area served
Micronesia and Southeast Asia
Key people
Tokuichi Kuribayashi
Factory of Nan'yō Kōhatsu in Chalan Kanoa, Saipan

The Nan'yō Kōhatsu kabushiki gaisha (南洋興発株式会社, abbreviated to Nankō or NKKK), also known the South Seas Development Company, was a Japanese strategic development company which aimed to promote economic development and Japanese political interests in Micronesia and Southeast Asia.[1]

Unveiling ceremony of Haruji Matsue Statue

Founded in 1921 by

South Manchuria Railway Company.[1]

Matsue was a fervent supporter of the

Sugar cane became the primary industry of Saipan and by the mid-1930s the company exported over twelve million yen of sugar to mainland Japan.[2]

In from the late 1920s and early 1930s, Nan'yō Kōhatsu developed a wide range of activities in

New Guinea, which also included an air field. By the late 1930s, the company employed over 50,000 people.[2]

Logo on the wall

From its base in Palau, Nan'yō Kōhatsu sent small ships to Dili as early as 1934 in an effort to break the monopoly of Dutch shipping on trade with Portuguese Timor.[1] However, in the summer of 1936, the company reached a secret agreement with the Imperial Japanese Navy to establish more of a foothold in Portuguese Timor, and with Navy funding, the company formed a joint venture in 1937 with the primary plantation company of Portuguese Timor, Sociedade Agrícola Pátria e Trabalho. The joint-venture effectively controlled imports and exports from Portuguese Timor, and by 1940 it was 48% controlled by Nan'yō Kōhatsu.[2] The company also bought out many small private operations in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago, and formed numerous joint ventures with native entrepreneurs.

As international tensions increased in the late 1930s, and following the outbreak of

Allied invasion and occupation of Portuguese Timor
in late 1941.

Matsue resigned as president in 1940, and was succeeded by Tokuichi Kuribayashi, an entrepreneur who had established several pearl fisheries in Southeast Asia and on the coast of Western Australia.

During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Nan'yō Kōhatsu continued to expand its operations, and received several projects from the Imperial Japanese Navy to assist in the administration of the occupied territories. In Sulawesi, for example, the company was responsible for the overseeing the collection and distribution of rice.[2]

However, during the

Allied occupation authorities.[2]

See also

References

  • Gunn, Geoffrey C. (1999). Timor Loro Sae: 500 Years. Macau: Livros do Oriente.
    ISBN 972-9418-69-1
    .
  • Lee, Robert (September 2000). "Crisis in a Backwater: 1941 in Portuguese Timor". Lusotopie (7, Lusophonies asiatiques, Asiatiques en lusophonies): 175–189. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27.
  • ISBN 0-691-10222-8
    .
  • Post, Peter (2010). The Encyclopedia of Indonesia in the Pacific War. Brill.
    ISBN 978-90-04-16866 4
    .

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to South Seas Development Company.
  1. ^ a b c Peatie, The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945, pp. 172–210;
  2. ^ a b c d e Post, The Encyclopedia of Indonesia in the Pacific War, pp. 560–561;
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