1870-1885:
The Early
Years |
| Mitsubishi founder Yataro Iwasaki was born in 1834 in the
village of Inokuchi on the island of Shikoku. That village, in what is now Kochi
Prefecture, was part of a region that belonged to the powerful Tosa clan. Yataro started
a shipping company in October 1870 under the name Tsukumo Shokai, and that was the
beginning of Mitsubishi. The company grew rapidly while undergoing a number of name
changes: to
Mitsukawa, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Steamship, Yubin Kisen (Postal Ship)
Mitsubishi. |
Mitsubishi founder
and first president,
Yataro Iwasaki (1834-1885) |
Origin of Mitsubishi
(three-diamond) Mark |
 The
Mitsubishi
three-diamond
mark
originated
with
the
emblem
that
Yataro
Iwasaki
chose
for
the
shipping
company
he
started
in
1870.
That
emblem
was a
combination
of
the
Iwasaki
family
crest
and
the
oak-leaf
crest
of
the
Yamanouchi
family,
leaders
of
the
Tosa
clan,
which
controlled
the
part
of
Shikoku
where
Yataro
was
born.
In 1885, Yataro lost control of his shipping company in the wake of a political
struggle that had buffeted Japan’s marine transport industry. The company merged with
a rival and became Nippon Yusen
(NYK Line), which would return to the ranks of the
Mitsubishi companies in later years. Though Yataro lost his shipping company, he had established other businesses that formed
the foundation for the Mitsubishi organization. One, Mitsubishi
Kawase-ten, was a
financial exchange house that also engaged in warehousing business. It was the forerunner
of today’s Mitsubishi Bank and Mitsubishi Warehouse & Transportation. Yataro also
had purchased a coal mine and a copper mine and had leased a Nagasaki shipyard from the
government. He had participated in establishing the insurance company that now is Tokio
Marine and Fire. He even headed up the school that became the Tokyo University of
Mercantile Marine. Yataro, however, was not destined to lead the Mitsubishi organization in its new phase of
growth. He died at the age of 50 in February 1885.
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|
1885-1893:
Renewed Growth |
| Yanosuke Iwasaki succeeded his older brother,
Yataro, as the
head of the Mitsubishi organization in 1885. The following year, he incorporated the
Mitsubishi operations as a modern corporation. Yanosuke set about rebuilding the
organization around its mining and shipbuilding businesses. He also expanded the
organization’s positions in banking, insurance, and warehousing and thus laid the
foundation for future growth and development. In 1890, Yanosuke agreed to buy about 30
hectares (80 acres) of Tokyo swampland that the government was trying to sell near the
Imperial Palace. He planned the commercial development on that real estate that became
Tokyo’s central business district,
Marunouchi. |
Mitsubishi's
second president,
Yanosuke Iwasaki (1851-1908) |
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works (around
1885 - then known as the Akunoura Machine Shop) |
Yanosuke ceded the Mitsubishi presidency to Yataro’s son,
Hisaya,
on the occasion of a reorganization of the company in 1893. He remained active, however,
and became the president of the Bank of Japan in 1896.
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|
1893-1916:
Diversification and Decentralization |
| Hisaya Iwasaki was a graduate of the University of
Pennsylvania, in the United States. He possessed a modern, international perspective on
business management. On becoming president in 1893, Hisaya divided the Mitsubishi
organization into semiautonomous divisions. Those divisions were banking, marketing, coal
mining, metals mining, real estate, shipbuilding, and administration. Among the Mitsubishi
companies established while Hisaya was president were businesses that now are Mitsubishi
Paper Mills, Asahi Glass, and Mitsubishi Cable Industries. |
Mitsubishi's third president, Hisaya Iwasaki (1865-1955) |
Hisaya insisted on the observance of firm ethical principles in business
dealings. When the outbreak of World War I jolted the old international order in 1914, he
called on all Mitsubishi employees to redouble their commitment to integrity and fairness.
Philanthropy was a lasting emphasis for
Hisaya. He donated to the city of Tokyo two
expansive Japanese gardens—Rikugien, in
Komagome, and
Kiyosumi, in Fukagawa—that
are among the finest in the city. And he established Toyo
Bunko, a library for housing
oriental works. Hisaya loved the simpler things in life. He personally managed two big
farms owned by the Mitsubishi organization.
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|
1916-1945:
Modernization and the Dissolution of the Mitsubishi Organization |
| Koyata Iwasaki, the son of Yanosuke, took over the presidency
from Hisaya in 1916 at the age of 38. Like Hasaya, he had studied abroad and was a
graduate of Cambridge University, in the United Kingdom. Koyata led the Mitsubishi
organization for nearly three decades and played a pivotal role in shaping the development
of Japanese industry. Under Koyata’s stewardship, important Mitsubishi divisions
became separately incorporated companies: Mitsubishi Shipbuilding (now part of Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries), Mitsubishi Corporation (trading), Mitsubishi Bank, Mitsubishi Mining
(now part of Mitsubishi Materials), Mitsubishi Electric, and Mitsubishi Estate. Koyata
also oversaw the creation of the companies that now are Nikon, Mitsubishi Trust and
Banking, Mitsubishi Oil, Mitsubishi Steel, Mitsubishi Kakoki, Mitsubishi Rayon, and
Mitsubishi Chemical. |
Mitsubishi's fourth
and last president,
Koyata Iwaski
(1879-1945) |
Mitsubishi is not a single, integrated company so no single
Mitsubishi management philosophy exists. But all the Mitsubishi companies are true
in their own ways to the principles enunciated in 1920 by Koyata Iwasaki. Those
principles are:
• Corporate responsibility to society
• Integrity and fairness
• International understanding through business |
| The administrative division of the original organization became a holding
company for the diverse Mitsubishi operations. It became a joint-stock corporation in 1937
and shares of the company—formerly owned completely by the Iwasaki family—later
became available to the public. After World War II, the Allied occupation forces were
in favor of voluntary dissolution by Japan’s zaibatsu industrial groups, including
Mitsubishi. That sentiment became formal in October 1945. Koyata himself succumbed to
illness in December 1945.
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|
Japan's first series -
production passenger car, the Mitsubishi Model A (1917) |
|
|
1946~
A New Beginning: |
| The dissolution of the Mitsubishi holding company took place formally in
October 1946, and the Mitsubishi companies fragmented into hundreds of independent
enterprises. Those enterprises would have to find their own ways to survive and grow amid
postwar turmoil and privation.
Prewar presidents and other top executives of the Mitsubishi companies lost their jobs
under the Allied occupation. Most Mitsubishi companies abandoned the Mitsubishi name and
emblem. |
 Quality
photography with the Nikon-I (1947) |
 The first television set marketed by Mitsubishi Electric (1953) |
|
In the early 1950s, the occupation policy changed profoundly in response
to evolving geopolitics. In the interests of promoting industrial development, the
occupation forces allowed renewed cooperation among the members of the prewar industrial
groups. Reconciliation was in the air after the San Francisco Peace Conference as Japan
regained a welcome place in the international community. Mitsubishi companies that had
abandoned that name after the war began using it and the three-diamond mark again.
In 1954, several enterprises that had been part of the trading house,
Mitsubishi Corporation, merged to reestablish that company. Similarly, the principal
components of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries reunited in 1964. Mergers like those resulted in
independent companies that were large enough to survive and grow in Japan’s
fast-growing economy.
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|
Mitsubishi Cement (now part of Mitsubishi Materials) plant in Kyushu (1956) |
|
|
| In Step with the Times |
| Japan was the scene of unprecedented economic growth in the
1950s and 1960s. Mitsubishi companies were very much a part of that growth—in their
established industries and in new ones. |
| A revolution was under way, for example, in Japan’s energy and
materials industries. The Mitsubishi companies participated actively in that revolution,
setting up Mitsubishi Petrochemical (now part of Mitsubishi Chemical), Mitsubishi Atomic
Power Industries, Mitsubishi Liquefied Petroleum Gas, and Mitsubishi Petroleum
Development, among other new enterprises. |
Mitsubishi Chemical petrochemical complex in Ibaraki Prefecture |
|
Stylish sweater of Mitsubishi Rayon's Vonnel acrylic |
|
The traditional Mitsubishi emphasis on technological
development was evident in new ventures in such fields as space development, aviation,
ocean development, data communications, computers, and semiconductors. Mitsubishi
companies also were active in consumer goods and services. |
On the road, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries incorporated its automotive
division in 1970 as Mitsubishi Motors. Also in that year, several Mitsubishi companies
funded the creation of Mitsubishi Research Institute.
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World-leading recreational vehicle for four-wheeled fun-Mitsubishi Motors' Pajero |
|
|
| Part of the Community |
Mitsubishi companies set up the Mitsubishi Public
Affairs Committee in 1964 to promote understanding of their activities and to sponsor
coordinate cultural and public-interest endeavors. International exchange is a chief
emphasis in those endeavors, as in the Mitsubishi Impression Gallery—Festival of
Asian Children’s Art. That is an annual exhibition of illustrated diaries by children
in Asian nations.
Mitsubishi Impression Gallery: Festival of Asian Children's Art—sponsored by
the Mitsubishi Public Affairs Committee |
In 1970, Mitsubishi companies established the Mitsubishi Foundation to
commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the first Mitsubishi company.
That foundation donates large sums of money annually to support scientific research and
public-interest activities. The Mitsubishi companies also are active individually in
supporting worthy causes through their own charitable foundations and in other ways.
Ski camps for children — one of numerous public-interest activities sponsored by
Mitsubishi Bank |
Friendship camp sponsored by Mitsubishi Corporation for single-parent families |
Mitsubishi pavilions have been highlights of expositions in Japan since
the historic EXPO’70 in Osaka in 1970. In every way, the companies take part actively
in the life of the community they serve.
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Mitsubishi Pavilion at
EXPO'70 in Osaka |
|
|
| Into the Future |
| The overriding priority for the Mitsubishi companies is to
enhance the quality of life for people everywhere by generating diverse kinds of value.
Each of the companies is committed to serving society through quality products and
conscientious service. They are equally committed to using their different strengths and
capabilities to preserve the earth for future generations. |
|
On behalf of the community…On behalf of the earth…The
Mitsubishi companies are committed to ensuring a bright and fulfilling future.
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