The Mitsubishi Gurūpu is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies.
Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 1946. The company, along with other major zaibatsu, was disbanded during the occupation of Japan following World War II by the order of the Allies. Despite the dissolution, the former constituent companies continue to share the Mitsubishi brand and trademark.
While the group of companies engages in limited business cooperation, most notably through monthly "Friday Conference" executive meetings, they remain formally independent and are not under common control. The three main entities ( gosanke) are Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (the largest bank in Japan), Mitsubishi Corporation (a general trading company), and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (a diversified manufacturing company). A 2020 estimate concluded that all the Mitsubishi companies combined generate 7.7% of the total revenue of all publicly traded companies in Japan, and the group's assets amount to 433 trillion yen.
Mitsubishi was established in 1870, two years after the Meiji Restoration, with shipping as its core business. Its diversification was mostly into related fields. It entered into coal-mining to gain the coal needed for ships, bought a shipbuilding yard from the government to repair the ships it used, founded an iron mill to supply iron to the shipbuilding yard, started a marine insurance business to cater for its shipping business, and so forth. Later, the managerial resources and technological capabilities acquired through the operation of shipbuilding were used to expand the business further into the manufacture of aircraft and equipment. The experience of overseas shipping led the firm to enter into a trading business. In 1881, the company bought into coal mining by acquiring the Takashima Mine, followed by Hashima Island in 1890, using the production to fuel their extensive steamship fleet. They also diversified into shipbuilding, , insurance, warehousing, and trade. Later diversification carried the organization into such sectors as paper, steel, glass, electrical equipment, aircraft, Petroleum, and real estate. As Mitsubishi built a broadly based conglomerate, it played a central role in the modernization of Japanese industry. In 1894, Hisaya Iwasaki succeeded his uncle Iwasaki Yanosuke as president. During his tenure until 1916, he modernised the Nagasaki Shipyard and developed Marunouchi as a business district.
Hisaya was succeeded by his cousin Koyata Iwasaki in 1916, and during his time as president the group saw a significant expansion. In 1917, he funded the establishment of an optics company and became the majority shareholder, which later became Nikon. During this era, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was at the forefront of Japan's aircraft development. He reorganised the group into a form similar to what it is now, and he spun off each department into a subsidiary. Most of them later went public, as he thought that for the sake of the expansion of business, more core capital was needed.
The firm's prime real estate holdings in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo, acquired in 1890, were spun off in 1937 to form Mitsubishi Estate, now one of the largest real estate development companies in Japan.
Arguably, one of the most tangible ways in which Mitsubishi was involved in the war was through its supply of ships, aircraft and other arms by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter, designed by Dr. Jiro Horikoshi was the primary fighter of the Imperial Navy.Mersky, Peter B. (Cmdr. USNR). "Time of the Aces: Marine Pilots in the Solomons, 1942–1944." ibiblio.org. Retrieved: 30 July 2015.Hawks, Chuck. "The Best Fighter Planes of World War II" . chuckhawks.com. Retrieved: 30 July 2015. Production of these equipments made Mitsubishi factories one of the main targets for Allied attacks, and in one factory the death toll among its workers amounted to 494 in just a week. Mitsubishi Mining was involved in the forced labour of Allied prisoners of war and people from Japan's colonies and occupied territories such as Korea and parts of China. The company's Iizuka mine counted 19 deaths of Chinese labourers during the war. In 2015, Mitsubishi Materials (formerly Mitsubishi Mining) compensated 3,765 Chinese labourers who were conscripted to the company during the war and apologised to ex-American prisoners of war. Mitsubishi was involved in the opium trade in China during this period.
Due to the zaibatsu dissolution, Mitsubishi Estate was split into two companies, Kanto Real Estate and Yowa Real Estate. Yowa Real Estate owned a significant portion of the land between the Imperial Palace and Tokyo Station, including the Marunouchi Building. In 1952, an incident occurred where two men, Kuniichiro Fujiami and Shomitsu Tajima, who were closely linked to infamous yakuza, attempted to take over Yowa Real Estate by becoming majority shareholders, as the market capitalisation of the company was significantly less than its real estate holdings. They , and other Mitsubishi companies had to buy the shares from them at an unjustly high price. This incident accelerated Mitsubishi's reintegration. In 1954, Mitsubishi Corporation was reformed, and the Mitsubishi Friday Club was established to foster camaraderie and information exchange among the chairpersons and presidents of major Mitsubishi companies. By 1964, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also reemerged. The Friday Club symbolised the formation of an equal group of companies, rather than the revival of the pre-war Mitsubishi zaibatsu with Mitsubishi Headquarters at the apex.
Twenty-nine of the group companies participate in the Kinyō-kai, a luncheon meeting of their most senior executives held on the second Friday of each month. The group began its tradition of monthly executive meetings in 1952, and over time the meetings became a venue for coordinating policy between the group companies. By the 1990s, this practice was criticized (particularly by non-Japanese investors) as a possible violation of antitrust law. Since 1993, the Friday Conference has officially been held as a social function, and not for the purpose of discussing or coordinating business strategy. Despite this, the Friday Conference has been a venue for informal cooperation and coordination between the group companies, most notably in bailing out Mitsubishi Motors during the mid-2000s.
In addition to the Friday Conference, the group companies' heads of general affairs hold a meeting on the third Monday of each month, and the group companies' legal and IP departments hold a trademark policy coordination meeting on the first Friday of each month.
The company briefly dabbled in television during the early 1990s, when it agreed a deal with Westinghouse Broadcasting International to become the Japanese distribution representative.
Ten other "major" group companies participate in the coordinating meeting on a rotating basis (with six of the ten companies participating in any given month):
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