The four most prominent families in Japan: Mitsubishi Zaibatsu, Mitsui Zaibatsu, Sumitomo Zaibatsu, and Fuji Zaibatsu.

1. Mitsubishi Zaibatsu

The founder of Mitsubishi Zaibatsu is Yataro Iwasaki. He was originally a transportation businessman in Tosa Domain. Later, with the help of the Japanese government, he dominated Japan's economy. Shipping industry, and later, the company's business scope expanded to other aspects. As of now, it has almost 500 member companies, and its business scope involves automobiles, electronics, petrochemicals, aircraft, shipbuilding, etc.

2. Mitsui Zaibatsu

Mitsui Hachirobe Takashi, the founder of Mitsui Zaibatsu, successfully opened his first clothing store in Kyoto in 1637. The chain store he opened later developed into A department store that operates department stores. As of now, there are more than 150 member companies of the Mitsui Group Managers Association and their subsidiaries and associated companies. Its business scope includes metals, machinery, information, chemicals, energy, living industries, logistics, finance and other fields. The number of employees in the group has reached 240,000.

3. Sumitomo Zaibatsu

Sumitomo Zaibatsu is one of the oldest corporate consortiums in Japan. The original founder of Sumitomo Zaibatsu, Sumitomo Masatomo, was a small vendor who opened a grocery store. By chance, He learned the copper smelting technology and later became a famous copper exporter around the world. As of now, the Sumitomo Consortium consists of 20 large companies and has strong capabilities in the financial, electrical and metal industries.

4. Fuji Zaibatsu

The Fuji Zaibatsu is one of the four traditional monopoly zaibatsu in Japan. It was developed from the Yasuda Zaibatsu before the Second World War and is a representative of modern Japan. Economic "leader". It currently consists of about 30 large companies. The Japanese call Mount Fuji the "Hibiscus Peak", so the Fuji Foundation is also called the Hibiscus Foundation. The Fuji Foundation has great influence in various important fields such as Japan's manufacturing, business and financial industries.

Introduction to the Sumitomo Foundation

As early as the 16th century, the Sumitomo family established and operated a copper mine on Shikoku Island and grew from strength to strength, becoming Japan’s official copper supplier. It mainly served some of the most powerful and famous families in Japan at that time, including the Tokugawa Shogunate who ruled Japan for more than 200 years from 1603 to 1868. At the time, the head of the family proudly claimed that Sumitomo was the world's largest copper exporter.

In the mid-19th century, the Japanese market gradually opened to the West, and Sumitomo Trading Company also developed more extensively in the fields of steel smelting and steelmaking. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Sumitomo family had rapidly developed into the third largest financial chaebol in Japan.

In the 1930s and during World War II, some politically influential monopoly groups became the main followers of Japanese militarism, and the Sumitomo Corporation was no exception. During this period, the family concentration of the Sumitomo Consortium became more obvious, and most of the consortium's properties were concentrated in the hands of the Sumitomo family. By 1937, the 16th generation of the Sumitomo family had controlled 90% of the total capital of the consortium.

After Japan's defeat, various chaebols disbanded and reorganized into corporate groups under the restrictions of the United States. The Sumitomo family's political and economic influence in Japan has also been greatly weakened. However, with the recovery of Japan's economy after the war, the Sumitomo Foundation made a comeback and grew stronger day by day. Since then, Sumitomo Trading Co., Ltd. has participated more extensively in international trading activities in the fields of metals, machinery, petroleum, chemicals, food and textiles, becoming the core enterprise of the Sumitomo Foundation and one of Japan's four major traders.

The above content refers to Baidu Encyclopedia-Japan’s Four Major Consortiums