Sojitz

Sojitz Corporation

Public KK
Traded as	TYO: 2768
Industry	Conglomerate (Sogo shosha)
Founded	August 2004; 19 years ago (2004-08)
Headquarters	Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Masayoshi Fujimoto, President & CEO
Revenue	JP¥4,006 billion (2016)
Net income	JP¥36.5 billion (2016)
Number of employees	14,330 (2016)
Website	Official website

Sojitz Corporation (

.

Sojitz was formed in 2004 by the

" (sun). "Sojitz", literally meaning "twin suns", implies a merger of equals between the two companies. The corporate logo is a stylized version of the first character in its Japanese name.

History

Nichimen

Beginning around 1878, the Japanese government promoted the development of cotton spinning as an initial means of developing modern industry in Japan in the wake of the Meiji Restoration. Japan's native raw cotton supply proved inadequate to meet demand, and there was only one Japanese importer of raw cotton at the time, making the industry highly reliant on foreign merchants. To improve this situation, a group of spinning companies established Japan Cotton Trading Co., Ltd. (日本綿花株式会社, Nippon Menka Kabushiki Kaisha) in Osaka in 1892 under the leadership of Tsuneki Sano, a 38-year-old former government official.^[2]

After the Russo-Japanese War, Nichimen expanded its business from importing. The company began cotton spinning operations in the Kwantung Leased Territory and established offices in China, Korea, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom to supply local markets. In 1910, Nichimen opened a subsidiary in Fort Worth, Texas to enter the raw cotton trade in the United States. World War I strained cotton supply in Europe, boosting Nichimen's international business further. In the late 1910s the company expanded into South America and Africa, trading in cotton as well as wool, food products, and machinery.

The Great Depression harmed Nichimen's cotton business, spurring the company's diversification beyond cotton to trade in silk, rayon and other materials. During World War II, Nichimen was tapped by the Japanese military to manage production of flour, matches and starch. The company changed its name to Nichimen Enterprise (Nichimen Jitsugyo) in 1943 to reflect its more diverse business.^[3]

The largest zaibatsu trading companies were dismantled after the war, giving Nichimen an early lead among the sogo shosha in the 1950s and a six percent share of Japanese foreign trade by 1958. Nichimen became closely affiliated with Osaka-based Sanwa Bank in 1955, which financed all of Nichimen's domestic business. Nichimen was not the main trading company for the Sanwa keiretsu as that position was already held by Iwai & Co. Nichimen Jitsugyo.^[3]

By 1970, Nichimen was trading in steel, electronics, motor vehicles and fibers in addition to textiles. Nichimen served as the joint venture partner for Nabisco when it began operations in Japan in the 1970s. Nichimen Co., Ltd. changed its name to Nichimen Corporation in 1982. Nichimen, like other sogo shosha, was hit hard by the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s, and subsequently made a strategic shift from the "soft" businesses of lumber, food, and chemicals trading to the "hard" businesses of machinery, steel, and construction.^[3]

Nissho Iwai

Nissho Iwai was formed in 1968 by the merger of Nissho Company and Iwai Sangyo Company.^[4]

Nissho Company was founded in

Both Nissho and Iwai emerged as metals and machinery trading companies after World War II but were significantly smaller than the four largest sogo shosha competitors (Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Itochu and Marubeni). Iwai was poorly managed after the war and was on the brink of failure in the early 1960s, while Nissho was profitable and successfully expanding overseas. The Japanese government directed the merger of the two companies in 1968, forming the fifth largest trading company in Japan (falling back to sixth place in 1972 behind Sumitomo Corporation).^[5] Sanwa Bank played a role in the merger and the combined firm became the trading arm of the Sanwa Group keiretsu.^[6]

Nissho Iwai was involved in a

In subsequent years, the company had a strong focus on liquefied natural gas and steel trading, as well as industrial project development.^[5]

Merger

Nichimen and Nissho Iwai consolidated on a holding company level in 2003 and consolidated their operating units in 2004, adopting the Sojitz name at that time. The merged holding company, Sojitz Holdings, combined with the merged operating company, Sojitz Corporation, in 2005.^[1]

Current operations

Today, the Sojitz Group consists of approximately 440

located in Japan and throughout the world, and it is developing its wide-ranging general trading company operations in roughly 50 countries and regions across the globe.

Sojitz (through its subsidiary Sojitz Aerospace Company) is the largest seller of commercial aircraft in Japan, as it acts as a sales agent for both

The Sojitz Aerospace Company also acts as Sojitz's primary arm for defense related business.

Sojitz has also invested in Hyundai Nishat, the

.

Sojitz owns oil and natural gas concessions in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Qatar, Gabon, Egypt and Brazil. It owns the Gregory coal mine^[9] and most of the Minerva Coal Mine in Australia and distributes nuclear fuel in Japan for Orano.^[10]

Its operations in the chemicals sector include

Its consumer business operations include trading in grains, feed, sugar, coffee, fish, wood and paper. It owns the Japanese rights to several consumer brands such as Eastpak and McGregor.^[13]

ADV Films acquisition

In June 2006, Sojitz acquired a 20% stake in

The titles removed from ADV's website are as follows:

.

References

External links

• Official website