"Japanese Zaibatsu" in Cultural sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa : an encyclopedia

Abstract

Zaibatsu is a Japanese term that refers to industrial and financial business companies that developed in Japan from the mid-1800s into the mid-1900s. Zaibatsu were large family-controlled vertical monopolies consisting of a holding company, a wholly owned banking subsidiary providing finance, and interconnected industrial subsidiaries dominating specific sectors of a market, either as stand-alone companies or through a number of subsubsidiaries. The size and influence of these companies allowed for significant control over segments of the Japanese economy. However, the zaibatsu were widely condemned by the late 1930s as being elements of Western excess in Japanese society, a corrupting influence on Japan's parliamentary system, and highly profit-oriented organizations disloyal to Japan's imperialistic future. From the late 1900s onward, the Zaibatsu were instrumental in economic and industrial activity within Japan. Zaibatsu groups were made up of a central holding company, owned by a controlling family, which held the stocks of major ...