ZaibatsuZaibatsu is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertically integrated business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period to World War II. A zaibatsu general structure included a family-owned holding company on top, and a bank which financed the other, mostly industrial subsidiaries within them.
History of JapanThe first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38-40,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventions were introduced from Asia. During this period, the first known written reference to Japan was recorded in the Chinese Book of Han in the first century AD. Around the 3rd century BC, the Yayoi people from the continent immigrated to the Japanese archipelago and introduced iron technology and agricultural civilization.
Mitsubishi GroupThe Mitsubishi Group is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 to 1946. The company was disbanded during the occupation of Japan following World War II. The former constituents of the company continue to share the Mitsubishi brand and trademark.
KeiretsuA keiretsu is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings that have dominated the Japanese economy since the second half of the 20th century. In the legal sense, it is a type of informal business group that are loosely organized alliances within the social world of Japan's business community. It rose up to replace the zaibatsu system that was dissolved in the Occupation of Japan following the Second World War, and, though their influence has shrunk since the late 20th century, they continue to be important forces in Japan's economy in the early 21st century.
Conglomerate (company)A conglomerate (kəŋˈɡlɒmərət) is a type of multi-industry company that consists of several different and unrelated business entities that operate in various industries under one corporate group. A conglomerate usually has a parent company that owns and controls many subsidiaries, which are legally independent but financially and strategically dependent on the parent company. Conglomerates are often large and multinational corporations that have a global presence and a diversified portfolio of products and services.
Economy of JapanThe economy of Japan is a highly developed/advanced social market economy, often referred to as an East Asian model. It is the third-largest in the world by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It is the world's second-largest developed economy. Japan is a member of both the G7 and G20. According to the IMF, the country's per capita GDP (PPP) was at $51,809 (2023). Due to a volatile currency exchange rate, Japan's GDP as measured in dollars fluctuates sharply.
Toshiba, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors, hard disk drives (HDD), printers, batteries, lighting, as well as IT solutions such as quantum cryptography which has been in development at Cambridge Research Laboratory, Toshiba Europe, located in the United Kingdom, now being commercialised.