Zaibatsu

Big Four

The "Big Four" zaibatsu (四大財閥, Yondai Zaibatsu) of, in chronological order of founding,

New Zaibatsu

Beyond the Big Four, consensus is lacking as to which companies can be called zaibatsu, and which cannot. After the Russo-Japanese War, a number of so-called "second-tier" zaibatsu also emerged, mostly as the result of business conglomerations and the awarding of lucrative military contracts. Some more famous second-tier zaibatsu include the

The early zaibatsu permitted some public shareholding of some subsidiary companies, but never of the top holding company or key subsidiaries.

The monopolistic business practices by the zaibatsu resulted in a closed circle of companies until Japanese industrial expansion on the Asian mainland (Manchukuo) began in the 1930s, which allowed for the rise of a number of new groups (shinko zaibatsu), including Nissan. These new zaibatsu differed from the traditional zaibatsu only in that they were not controlled by specific families, and not in terms of business practices.

Postwar dissolution

The zaibatsu had been viewed with some ambivalence by the

During the occupation of Japan, sixteen zaibatsu were targeted for complete dissolution, and twenty-six more for reorganization after dissolution. Among the zaibatsu that were targeted for dissolution in 1947 were Asano, Furukawa, Nakajima, Nissan, Nomura, and Okura. In addition, Yasuda dissolved itself in 1946. The controlling families' assets were seized, holding companies eliminated, and interlocking directorships, essential to the old system of inter-company coordination, were outlawed. The Matsushita Electric Industrial Company (which later took the name Panasonic), while not a zaibatsu, was originally also targeted for breakup, but was saved by a petition signed by 15,000 of its union workers and their families.^[3]

However, complete dissolution of the zaibatsu was never achieved, mostly because the U.S. government rescinded the orders in an effort to reindustrialize Japan as a bulwark against

Modern-day influence

Today, the influence of the zaibatsu can still be seen in the form of financial groups, institutions, and larger companies whose origins reach back to the original zaibatsu, often sharing the same original family names (for example,

Popular culture

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The term zaibatsu has been used often in books, comics, games, and films, referring to large and usually sinister Japanese corporations, who are often involved in shady dealings or have connections to the

• In the Tom Clancy book Debt of Honor, a group of zaibatsu seize control of Japan and invade the US-held Mariana Islands.
• The video game Grand Theft Auto 2 features a gang called the Zaibatsu that the player can take jobs from. It is the largest gang in the game, and the eventual final enemy.
• The video game Hearts of Iron IV features the Zaibatsus as a modifier for the nation of Japan. This modifier is present at the start of the game in 1936 which causes a small percentage of increase in faster civilian, military, and naval factory construction with the trade-off of gaining less political power, increasing political power cost of trade laws, and higher economy costs.
• Karin Kanzuki, a character from the Street Fighter
  series, is the heiress to the Kanzuki Zaibatsu.
• The Itoshiki family from
  Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei
  owns a zaibatsu to accentuate their heavy economic and political background.
• In the Tekken series, the Mishima Zaibatsu is the major organization behind the tournaments.
• In the manga Tokyo Ghoul, Shuu Tsukiyama is the heir to the Tsukiyama Group, a powerful international business conglomerate that originated as a zaibatsu.
• In the tabletop role-playing game Shadowrun, several of the Big Ten mega-corporations are formed from the old zaibatsu and still carry on their managerial styles in the Japanese Imperial State in the sixth world, prominent examples being Renraku and Mitsuhama Computer Technologies.
• In the board game Nippon, players control zaibatsu and try to grow their influence and power as they oversee the era of rapid industrialization of Japan.
• In the manga and anime Urusei Yatsura, the character Shutaro Mendou is the heir to the Mendou zaibatsu, the wealthiest and most powerful zaibatsu with its own private army and even private air force. His rival Tobimaro Mizunokoji is the heir to the Mizunokoji Zaibatsu, the second wealthiest and second most powerful zaibatsu which also has its own private military. Their sisters Ryoko Mendou and Asuka Mizunokoji are also important characters, with Ryoko Mendou commanding large numbers of kuroko and setting up elaborate, very expensive and destructive schemes, and Asuka Mizunokoji being terrified of all men except for her brother and also having such extreme superhuman strength due to an entire lifetime of military training that it makes the superhuman strength of Shinobu Miyake seem normal by comparison.
• In the manga and anime Killing Bites, the plot revolves around four zaibatsu and the bloody to-the-death tournaments members of them participate in against other zaibatsu teams. Recently, through gene splicing or similar technology, all of the fighters have been turned into creatures called Therianthropes – people with abilities to make partial, and in some cases complete, transformations into animals, and take on many characteristics of these animals.
• In the manga and anime Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, the female protagonist Kaguya Shinomiya is the daughter of the leader of the fictitious Shinomiya group, one of the big four zaibatsu of an alternate history.
• In the novel Neon Nothing by Ryan McKinney, the name of the tower that houses three of the biggest companies in the city is called Zaibatsu.

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Alletzhauser, Albert J. The House of Nomura. New York:
  ISBN 0-06-097397-8
  .
• ISBN 0-8014-3312-6
  .
• Aoki, Masahiko & Hyung-Ki Kim. Corporate Governance in Transitional Economies: Insider Control and the Role of Banks. Retrieved online 28 June 2004. Print edition: Washington, D.C.: World Bank Office of the Publisher, 1995.
  ISBN 0-8213-2990-1
  .
• Morck, Randall; Nakamura, Masao (2005). "A Frog in a Well Knows Nothing of the Ocean: A History of Corporate Ownership in Japan". In Morck, Randall (ed.). A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 367–466.
  ISBN 0-226-53680-7
  .
• Schenkein, Joshua (2014). Japan, the Great Power: Industrialization Through the Lens of Zaibatsu. ASIN B00NRHRMW2.

External links

• The Zaibatsu of Japan
• Zaibatsu Dissolution, Reparations and Administrative Guidance.