Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T05:33:13.178Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Organizational Structure of Mitsubishi and Mitsui Zaibatsu, 1868–1922: A Comparative Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Hidemasa Morikawa
Hidemasa Morikawa
Affiliation:
Professor of Business History, Hosei University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As their enterprises expanded at the turn of the century, the leaders of two of the most famous Japanese zaibatsu worked continually to maintain the delicate balance between centralization and decentralization so essential to continued growth. Professor Morikawa chronicles and analyzes the most important organizational developments in these gigantic family firms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 44 , Issue 1: Japanese Entrepreneurship , Spring 1970 , pp. 62 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Central headquarters of the zaibatsu took various forms (committee, company, etc.). It controlled departments, divisions, companies, or joint-stock corporations. In this last instance, the central headquarters became a holding company.

2 A clear contrast can be seen in the United States during the 1920's in the case of Du Pont and General Motors who played the role of pioneers in the development of the multi-divisional organization. Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., Strategy and Structure; Chapters in the History of Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), chaps. 2–3.Google Scholar

3 Morikawa, Hidemasa, “The Organizational Structure of the Mitsui Zaibatsu: Analysis of the Historical Materials Concerning the Mitsui Trading Co. during the Meiji Era,” Keiei Shirin (The Hosei Journal of Business), VI (1969).Google Scholar

4 For the entrepreneurial activity of Yataro Iwasaki, see Yamamura, Kozo, “The Founding of Mitsubishi: A Case Study in Japanese Business History,” Business History Review, XLI (Summer, 1967)Google Scholar, and Life of Yataro Iwasaki by a Biography Compilation Committee for Yataro Iwasaki and Yanosuke Iwasaki, 2 vols. (1967).

5 Mitsubishi transferred 515 of its 2,200 employees to the newly formed company. History of Mitsubishi, XII, 441 ff.

6 Ibid., XIII, 28.

7 The company regulations of the new Mitsubishi-sha were as follows:

“Title of the Officers and Rank: President, General Manager, Manager, Assistant Manager, Officer in Charge of Office Work, and Officer in Charge of Miscellaneous Work. Regulations: (1) The subject company which is owned by the family of Iwasaki shall be called ‘Mitsubishi-sha.’ (2) Appointment and resignation of the officers, and any problems pertaining to proper execution of the business concerned, regardless of importance, shall be settled by the instructions, decisions, and approval of the president, and shall in no case be governed by any other officer. (3) The general manager shall see to the task of properly controlling and fairly evaluating profits and losses of the business and the ability and diligence of the company employees. (4) The manager shall see to the due performance of the internal and external business respectively assigned.” (Ibid., XIII, 28–29.)

The characteristic which one would first notice is the enormous authority of the president. As described in Article 2, the president was fully empowered to give orders with respect to personnel affairs and business operations, no matter how trivial the matter might be. Such a centralized management organization survived in fact from the time of Yatarō Iwasaki's presidency of Mitsubisbi-Kaisha, as is stipulated in the company regulations of his time:

“Although this company has the stature of a corporation with its registered company name, it is completely a family company in its management and shall remain distinct from those of joint-capital or joint-partnership. Accordingly, all matters pertaining to the company including personnel affairs such as rewards, discipline, promotion and demotion shall be subject to the decisions and approvals of the president.” Also, in the regulations, the general manager seems to have played the role of “general staff,” but neither his duties nor his authority were clearly specified.

8 Ibid., XV, 213–15.

9 Masakatsu Yamawaki was appointed as general manager. In December, Nagasaki Shipyard was renamed the Mitsubishi Shipyard, and Yamawaki became the head of the shipyard in addition to serving as general manager.

10 Inoue, Yōichiro, “The Nagasaki Shipyard and the Establishment of the Modern Shipbuilding Industry,” Keiei Shigaku (Japan Business History Review), III (1968).Google Scholar

11 History of Mitsubishi, XV, 222, XVII, 220–22.

12 Mitsubishi-sha or Mitsubishi & Partners, Ltd. could not obtain governmental approval to incorporate the 119th National Bank under its direct control, but they issued the announcement of appointment of the directors and officers of the bank. This was not the case with Senkawa Water Supply and Service Co. which was dissolved in 1908.

13 History of Mitsubishi Bank (1954), 64ff.

14 Life of Hisaya Iwasaki, by Biography Publishing Committee for Hisaya Iwasaki (1961), 384–87. Concurrently with the beginning of modernization of Nagasaki Shipyard, Mitsubishi & Partners, Ltd. decided to build the Kobe Shipyard which was completed in July 1905.

15 Koyata Iwasaki went abroad after having graduated from the First Senior High School (Dai-Ichi Kōtōgakko) and having spent a year at the Imperial University of Tokyo. Life of Koyata Iwasaki, by Biography Publishing Committee for Koyata Iwasaki (1957), 56–69.

16 History of Mitsubishi & Co., Ltd., XV, 1096–1098.

17 Ibid., XVIII, 1302.

18 Ibid., XVIII, 1303.

19 See Jūichi Shukuri, Life of Heigorō Shōda (1932), and Kumakichi Usaki, Life of Ryōhei Toyokawa (1922).

20 The fields of heavy industry of Mitsubishi Zaibatsu included iron and steel (Kenjiho iron works, in Korea), aircraft, automobiles (obliged to be suspended in 1921), and electric appliances (which was derived from the shipbuilding industry). Coal, chemical, and petroleum refining were newly born in that Koyata's era and enjoyed brilliant success. A study of these newly born industries, however, has to be omitted in this article because of the limited space. (Life of Koyata Iwasaki, 220ff.) A comprehensive study of the diversified enterprises of the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu will require that space be given to the accounts of such related companies as Nippon Yusen K.K. (Shipping), Tokyo Marine & Fire Insurance Co., Meiji Life Insurance Co., and some railway companies, i.e., Sanyo and Kyushu, of which Mitsubishi & Partners Co., Ltd., were principal shareholders, and also of Mitsubishi Paper Mills, Kirin Brewery Co., Koiwai Ranch (in all of which Hisaya Iwasaki and his family had an interest), and Asahi Glass Co. (in which Koyata Iwasaki and his family had an interest) but those accounts have been omitted in this article.

21 History of Mitsubishi & Co., Ltd., XXII, 2601, XXIV, 3937.

22 Life of Kazuo Funada, by Biography Publishing Committee in Honor of Kazuo Funada (1953), 255.

23 History of Mitsubishi & Co., Ltd., XXVI, 4964–966.

24 Ibid., XXIX, 5882–883.

25 Kazuo Noda, “Managers in the Past 50 Years,” Seisansei (Productivity), Series 11, No. 7 (1964). Other changes occurred in the top management of Mitsubishi & Partners, Ltd. at the beginning of the Showa era not only because of the unusual economic conditions but also due to Koyata's sickness. The study on this point, however, is beyond the scope of the subject of this article.

26 Chandler, Strategy and Structure, chaps. 2–3.

27 Ibid.

28 History of the Mitsui Head Office, II, 426.

29 Ibid., 460.

30 Life of Baron Takuma Dan, by the biography Publication Committee for the Late Baron Dan (1938), II, 221; Kazuo Noda, “Managers in the Past 50 Years,” Seisansei (productivity), Series 1, No. 5 (1963); Morikawa, Hidemasa, “The Diversified Development of Heavy Industry of the Mitsui Zaibatsu,” Keiei Shirin (The Hosei Journal of Business), IV (1967)Google Scholar, V (1968).