27-500: Mitsui Bank, Ltd. ( 三井銀行 , Mitsui Ginkō ) was a major Japanese bank from 1876 to 1990. The home bank of the Mitsui conglomerate, it was one of the largest Japanese banks for much of the 20th century, together with Dai-Ichi Bank , Mitsubishi Bank , Sumitomo Bank , and Yasuda / Fuji Bank . In 1943 it merged with Dai-Ichi Bank to form Teikoku Bank ( Japanese : 帝国銀行 , lit. ' Imperial Bank ' ). In 1948, Dai-Ichi Bank
54-425: A horizontal coalition of independent companies in the 1950s, once the occupation of Japan had ended and some of the smaller companies were allowed to re-coalesce. The central firms in the keiretsu became Mitsui Bank and Mitsui & Co. Mitsui lagged somewhat behind its rivals Mitsubishi and Sumitomo Group in reorganization. Mitsui Bank, which should have been the mainstay and principal capital provider of
81-592: A limited company (capital stock: ¥20 million) in 1909. By 1929, Mitsui Bank had 6 offices outside of Japan and its colonies, including in London and New York . That was more than Mitsubishi Bank and Yasuda Bank, though less than Sumitomo Bank let alone the Yokohama Specie Bank , Bank of Chōsen and Bank of Taiwan , for which foreign trade was part of a public-interest mandate under special legislation. World War II led Mitsui Bank to distance itself from
108-651: A money changer. Mitsui Bank was established as a private company in July 1876, with capital of two million yen. It was one of the Japanese government's main banks for deposits and tax collections until the formation of the Bank of Japan in 1882. In ensuing decades, the Mitsui family took over numerous government industrial plants to form a major zaibatsu conglomerate, with the bank as one of its core businesses. Mitsui Bank reorganized as an unlimited partnership in 1893, and as
135-514: A political furor in Japan and resulted in the assassination of Mitsui executive Takuma Dan . During the 1930s and '40s, the subsidiary tobacco industry of Mitsui had started production of special "Golden Bat" cigarettes using the then-popular Far East trademark. Their circulation was prohibited in Japan and was used only for export. Local Japanese secret service kempeitai under the controversial Imperial Japanese Army General Kenji Doihara had
162-576: The Meiji Restoration , Mitsui was among the enterprises that were able to expand to become zaibatsu not simply because they were already big and rich at the start of modern industrial development. Firms like Mitsui and Sumitomo 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. Mitsui's main business in
189-574: The Far East , sentenced to death; but no actions ever took place against the company which profited from their production. According to testimony presented at the Tokyo War Crimes trials in 1948, the revenue from the narcotization policy in China, including Manchukuo , was estimated in 20 million to 30 million yen per year, while another authority stated that the annual revenue was estimated by
216-586: The Japanese military at US$ 300 million a year. During the Second World War , Mitsui employed American prisoners of war as slave laborers, some of whom were maimed by Mitsui employees. In 1947 and 1948, the Supreme Commander Allied Powers pressed the Japanese government to dismantle the ten largest zaibatsu conglomerates, including Mitsui. The Mitsui Group, broken into many separate companies, reorganized itself as
243-589: The Mitsui zaibatsu beginning around 1937, as the bank's large balance of loans to munitions manufacturers made it vulnerable to failure should a recession occur after the war. The solution found by Mitsui's chairman was to merge the bank with the Dai-Ichi Bank , creating a much larger institution outside the Mitsui family's control. In April 1943, Mitsui Bank merged with Dai-Ichi to form Teikoku Bank. Teikoku almost immediately found itself short of funds, and for
270-1074: The Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Mitsukoshi merged into Isetan , a major department store with close ties to the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ , to form Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings in April 2008. Companies associated with the Mitsui keiretsu include Mitsui & 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). Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Too Many Requests If you report this error to
297-814: The Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges in May 1949 and changed its name back to Mitsui Bank in January 1954. Mitsui Bank merged with Toto Bank in April 1968. Around 1960, Mitsui Bank and its general trading company partner Mitsui & Co. formed a horizontal keiretsu alliance between other companies descended from the Mitsui conglomerate, including Toyota , Toshiba , Toyo Menka Kaisha , Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries , Showa Aircraft and Oji Paper . Mitsui established The Mitsui Bank of California in Los Angeles in 1974, and acquired Manufacturers Bank in 1981, merging
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#1732772067579324-526: The city of Edo, cash sales were not yet a widespread business practice. Edo's government had struck a business deal with Osaka . 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 middle feudal Japan . In 1683, the shogunate granted permission for money exchanges ( ryōgaeten ) to be established in Edo. The Mitsui "exchange shops" facilitated transfers while mitigating risks. After
351-570: The control of their distribution in China and Manchuria where the production exported. Within the mouthpiece were small discreet doses of opium or heroin, and consequently millions of unsuspecting consumers became addicted to these narcotics, while huge profits were created for the company. The mastermind of the plan, Doihara, was later prosecuted and convicted for war crimes before the International Military Tribunal for
378-547: The creation in 1878, of Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK), which was merged with Mitsui Steamship in 1964, to become Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), which became one of the largest ocean shipping groups in the world. When the United Kingdom withdrew from the gold standard in 1931, during the height of the Great Depression , Mitsui Bank and Mitsui & Co. were found to have speculated around the transaction. This raised
405-407: 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
432-517: The early period was drapery, finance, and trade, the first two being the businesses it inherited from the Tokugawa Era. 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,
459-513: The family shop, Echigoya. He opened a new branch in 1673; a large gofukuya ( kimono shop) in Nihonbashi , a district in the heart of Edo. The genesis of Mitsui's business was in the Enpō era, which was a nengō meaning "Prolonged Wealth". In time, the gofukuya division separated from Mitsui, and became Mitsukoshi . Traditionally, gofukuyas provided products made to order; a visit was made to
486-642: The group, declined in size due to the collapse of the Imperial 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 , and Suntory , once part of the Mitsui Group, became independent, with the Toyota Group becoming a conglomerate in its own right. In 2000, Mitsui Pharmaceuticals
513-661: The pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. Instead, the companies in the group hold shares in each other, but they are limited to exchanging information and coordinating plans through regular meetings. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & 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 and Mitsui Fudosan . Founded by Mitsui Takatoshi (1622–1694), who
540-540: The remainder of the war, mainly provided short-term financing, with long-term financing for its munitions manufacturing customers mostly provided by the Industrial Bank of Japan . Dai-Ichi and Mitsui had very different corporate cultures which led to friction between the two; the two banks never completely integrated, and in October 1948, Dai-Ichi Bank separated from Teikoku Bank. Teikoku Bank listed its shares on
567-496: The trading company entered into chemicals to attain forward integration. On July 1, 1876, Mitsui Bank, Japan's first private bank, was founded with Takashi Masuda (1848–1938) as its president. Mitsui Bank, which following a merger with Taiyō-Kobe Bank in the mid-1980s became part of Sakura Bank , survives as part of the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation . During the early 20th century, Mitsui
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#1732772067579594-518: The two later that year to form Mitsui Manufacturers Bank (renamed Manufacturers Bank in 1992). Mitsui Bank agreed to merge with Taiyo Kobe Bank in 1989. At the time (in the midst of the Japanese asset price bubble ), the merger was to create the second largest bank in the world behind Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank . While TKB had a strong base of individual and small business customers, Mitsui had a complementary base of larger institutional clients. The merger
621-771: Was acquired by the German Schering AG from Berlin . Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries ( IHI Corporation ) is now considered to be part of the Mizuho Group , and many companies in the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group are more closely tied to the Sumitomo Group than the Mitsui Group. As of 2021 there were signs that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and the Mitsubishi Group could be taking over other parts of
648-403: Was aimed at leveraging these synergies, as well as providing stronger competition against European banks, which were expected to consolidate following a deregulation in 1992. Mitsui Mitsui Group ( 三井グループ , Mitsui Gurūpu ) is a Japanese corporate group and keiretsu that traces its roots to the zaibatsu groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the zaibatsu of
675-488: Was one of the largest zaibatsu , operating in numerous fields. Mitsui Bank became the holding company of the Mitsui zaibatsu from 1876. It was joined as an ultimate parent company by Mitsui & Co. and Mitsui Mining in 1900, with various industrial concerns owned by various combinations of these companies and their subsidiaries. Likewise, Mitsui invested in maritime transportation to support its trading activities as well as invest in passenger transportation, first with
702-503: Was spun off again from Teikoku, which changed its name back to Mitsui Bank in 1954. In 1990, Mitsui Bank merged with Taiyo Kobe Bank to form Mitsui Taiyo Kobe Bank (MTKB), which was renamed Sakura Bank in April 1992 and was a predecessor entity of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). The Mitsui family began banking operations in 1683, when the Tokugawa Shogunate granted Mitsui Takatoshi permission to act as
729-596: Was the fourth son of a shopkeeper in Matsusaka , in what became Mie prefecture . From his shop, called Echigoya (越後屋), Mitsui Takatoshi's father originally sold miso and ran a pawn shop business. The family would later open a second shop in Edo (modern Tokyo ). 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
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