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When it comes to famous Japanese companies, many people think of Panasonic, Sony, Toyota, Toshiba and other world-famous companies.
However, few people know that the above large enterprises are actually the same force behind them - the Mitsui Foundation.
As one of the six largest conglomerates in Japan, the Mitsui Foundation has survived more than 300 years of ups and downs.
At its peak, it was Japan's No. 1 zaibatsu.
Even after the collapse of World War II, it can still be resurrected quickly, and now it has at least more than 20 trillion assets.
However, behind the rise of the Mitsui chaebol is a monstrous blood debt.
Because they basically "hand in hand" with militarism, they were able to "achieve" each other.
Today we will talk about the history of the Mitsui Foundation and what role it played in the war of aggression against China.
The true strength of the Mitsui consortium has always been a mystery.
Because Mitsui knows how to "make a big move", he is always low-key like a shadow, standing behind his companies and being their capital boss.
In this way, they gradually became the "shadow empire" that you can't see him, but can't do without him.
As early as the early 90s, Mitsui & Co. became the first of the world's top 500 companies.
But at this moment, they took the initiative to break up the business.
Perhaps this is the way Mitsui does business.
They prefer to make money in a low-key way, so their true strength is also difficult to estimate.
But even on the surface, the number of companies under the Mitsui consortium and the breadth of business scope are enough to be astonishing.
Mitsui has hundreds of companies, covering businesses including but not limited to shipbuilding, automobiles, chemicals, steel, petroleum, mining, nuclear energy, finance, banking, insurance, electronics, products, and tourism.
Nowhere is this more well-known than in the electronics and automotive sectors.
Toyota, once the world's largest car company and the most profitable automobile group, has an annual turnover of nearly $300 billion.
Panasonic and Sony are the world's top ten electronic home appliance brands.
Panasonic is also the world's second-largest battery brand for electric vehicles, and Sony is also one of the world's three giants of video games and one of the largest electronics manufacturers.
Toshiba, we are familiar with all kinds of electrical products and semiconductors from this company.
What's more, in fact, they are also involved in arms, producing tanks, missiles, etc. for the Japanese military.
Perhaps seeing this, most people can understand how good its total revenue is.
But the reality is that none of them are the core companies of the Mitsui Foundation.
The real core of the Mitsui Foundation is Mitsui Bank, Mitsui & Co., and Mitsui Fudosan Fudosan
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is one of the world's top 10 commercial banks, with total assets of over 100 billion yen.
Mitsui Fudosan is the leading real estate and real estate developer in Japan.
Mitsui & Co., one of the world's largest general trading companies, has more than 1,000 subsidiaries and about 90 offices around the world.
The aforementioned "No. 1 in the world's top 500 in 1993" is what it is talking about.
After its split, it still remained stable in the top 500.
In addition to the companies listed above, there are many large companies under the Mitsui Foundation.
For example, Mitsui Chemicals, a world-renowned petrochemical company, has an annual turnover of 10 billion US dollars.
Mitsui Shipbuilding was the main coastal defense ship builder of the Japanese Navy during World War II, and now it is the main ship of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
And even a participant in the construction of aircraft carriers.
Nippon Steel, the world's largest steel company, exports to 100 countries around the world.
Epson, a global technology leader, has annual sales of more than one trillion yen.
Toray, a global chemical fiber giant, has annual sales of more than $10 billion.
Shiseido, a well-known cosmetics group, has annual net sales of more than one trillion yen.
Kao, the world's top 500 daily necessities brand ......
These are just the tip of the iceberg, and the total wealth of the Mitsui consortium is incalculable.
So, how did Mitsui get started and become the business empire it is today?
And this has to mention an infuriating history of blood and tears......
In 1673 in Kyoto, there was a silk shop owned by a man named Mitsui Hachiro Goryo.
This was the earliest starting point of the Mitsui Foundation.
At that time, he quickly opened up sales channels with the advantage of high quality and low price.
After accumulating a considerable fortune, he opened another bank.
It was this clever move that led Mitsui to become the imperial merchant of the Tokugawa Shogunate (also known as the Edo Shogunate).
To put it simply, it was to cooperate with the shogunate, arrange exchange for the shogunate, and subsidize the feudal princes, so as to obtain the protection of the regime.
With a business acumen and "privileges", Mitsui flourished and became a famous wealthy merchant in the Edo period.
Even after the Meiji Restoration began in 1868 and Meiji** replaced the Tokugawa shogunate, the Mitsui family was still in full swing, if not better.
This is because Mitsui's big shopkeeper knows how to see the wind and steer the rudder.
In the late shogunate, he had already made a clear defection and funded the support of the new **.
After the victory of the Shogunate faction, Mitsui naturally became the "red-top merchant" of Meiji**.
Originally, for the sake of feudal economic thinking, the new ** wanted to build a large number of government-run enterprises, but with little success.
Instead, they turned to private capital.
Mitsui took advantage of this to pick up a big bargain and bought government-run enterprises such as textile institutes, coal mines, silk mills, and railways at low prices.
All of these grew into Mitsui's core companies in the future.
At that time, Mitsui once became the largest politician and businessman in Japan, and also established Mitsui Bank and Mitsui & Co., making money every day and saving huge wealth.
However, this came to an abrupt end in 1882 with the establishment of Japan's state-owned banks.
Mitsui Bank's business volume has decreased significantly, and the money lent to ** is often gone without return.
At that time, Mitsui Bank even almost collapsed.
It's just that Seon lost his horse, and he didn't know if it was a blessing.
In order to save himself, Mitsui decided to break his wrist and shift his focus from the lending business to industrial and commercial enterprises, embark on the road of independent development, and transform from a political and business man to an enterprise capitalist.
It was not until the late Meiji period that domestic contradictions became prominent with the rapid development of capitalism.
In order to pass on the crisis, Japan embarked on the path of military expansion.
Once again, Mitsui seized the opportunity and responded positively.
While taking into account the original industries, he began to vigorously develop heavy industry, chemical industry, and other war industries, and closely linked them with militarism.
In addition, Mitsui once again drastically reorganized its direct enterprises into joint-stock companies, and in 1909 established a shareholding company, "Mitsui Co., Ltd."
This meant that Mitsui formed a huge family business and established its status as a chaebol.
Of course, the emergence of the chaebol is not accidental.
Mitsui's development into a chaebol, and even the most influential chaebol giant in Japan, is inseparable from the emergence of militarism and the war windfall.
What's even more infuriating is that in Japan's war of aggression against China, they did not contribute less!
What's going on?
As a matter of fact, the breeding and development of Japanese chaebol and militarism go hand in hand and complement each other.
The expansion of militarism could not be separated from the help of the chaebols, and the ambitions of the chaebols could not be satisfied with the narrow domestic market.
The two hit it off, and after only one taste of the sweetness, this cooperation model will become more and more intense.
Militarist aggression led to the chaebol's vigorous development of the military industry.
The development of Japan's military industry has forced militarism to constantly wage foreign wars.
In 1894, the Sino-Japanese naval war broke out, and Mitsui mobilized donations.
In just a few days, they joined forces with other political and business gangs to raise 52% of the military expenses for the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle.
Among them, Mitsui naturally accounts for the majority.
At the same time, it also provided strong support in shipbuilding, transportation, metal mining, etc., to ensure the smooth progress of the war.
After the First Sino-Japanese War, Mitsui's financial industry was nourished by China's huge reparations, while further expanding its military heavy industry.
In the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Mitsui once again poured his money into help, and after the war, he began to invest in China on a large scale and set up factories and banks to extract the fat and ointment of the Chinese people.
After a large accumulation of capital, the Mitsui Zaibatsu was formed during this period.
Later, the arrival of World War I brought a large number of military orders to Mitsui.
At the same time, they took advantage of the fact that the European and American powers had no time to take care of it, monopolized the Chinese market and made a lot of money.
Especially after the "918 Incident", basically wherever the Japanese army went, the Mitsui chaebol followed.
Between 1931 and 1936, Mitsui's profit margins tripled, and he gained a monopoly under the protection of the Japanese army.
At that time, Mitsui controlled 65% of the Northeast cement market share, half of the Northeast wheat flour imports, 10% of the shares of Manchuria Petroleum Co., Ltd., and was also the largest importer of sugar.
In 1937, a full-scale war of aggression against China broke out, and Mitsui's tentacles penetrated deep into the mainland.
Their minions are almost all over the map of China, and they have started a crazy bloodsucking mode and become the number one in Japan's financial world.
During that time, he assisted the Japanese military in running the National Policy Club and the Control Committee, and frantically plundered the main national economy in the occupied areas, such as transportation, communications, minerals, and finance.
On the one hand, with the assistance of the Japanese army, a large number of Chinese national industrial enterprises were appropriated for themselves by means of "leasing", "buying", and "joint establishment".
It is no exaggeration to say that the Mitsui Zaibatsu's business activities in China are a microcosm of the history of Japan's invasion of China.
As an important promoter of the war, Mitsui Zaibatsu committed unforgivable crimes.
What is infuriating is that despite the liquidation and dismantling of all the Japanese zaibatsu after the war, Mitsui is still active on the world economic stage, if not more than ever.
This is mainly due to the cover-up of the US authorities, coupled with the US support policy for Japan, which led to the incomplete disintegration of the chaebols.
Although Mitsui was the hardest hit of all the chaebols, he was also the most ambitious and the means.
It was not until the late 50s that it slowly recovered through restructuring and merging enterprises and became a large conglomerate of the past.
And after the resurrection, the chaebols such as Mitsui and others still continue to be militaristic.
The implication is that they have once again become the economic backing of Japan's "right-wing forces," and their militaristic thinking has quickly revived.
If Mitsui and other Japanese conglomerates are not thoroughly liquidated, Japan's "right-wing forces" will never die.
This is perhaps a heavy topic for all Asians to ponder.
Resources. Wang Youqing. The expansion and monopoly of the Japanese chaebol on China during the war of aggression against China[J].Western Academic Journal,2020,(12):123-126doi:10.16721/j.cnki.cn61-1487/c.2020.12.037
Qiu Song. A Study on the Relationship between Japanese Zaibatsu and Militarism[D].Northwest Normal University, 2020doi:10.27410/d.cnki.gxbfu.2020.000606