In March 2009, the Zhang Ziyan incident, which caused a sensation in South Korea, broke out, leaving behind a suicide note of more than 230 pages, every word of blood and tears. It then evolved into an Asian storm, and the term chaebol came into public view. Then everyone held a magnifying glass and seemed to want to get a glimpse of its full picture, but what was left was nothing more than entanglements between heirs, power trading, and bullying of the entertainment industry. The consequence is that the award-winning films in the entire Korean entertainment industry are basically exported on the face of the chaebols, and which year's Korean local award-winning films do not scold the chaebols, and they are embarrassed to be nominated.
But Japan, which is also one of the three East Asian countries, can only smile when it sees the operation of the South Korean chaebol, it is small, and the pattern is small. Entertainment is only one more circle, from the presidential election to the national economy and people's livelihood. But where they survive in the land of neon, the chaebols are everywhere. But even so, from the private to the media, from domestic to international, its low-key has almost no presence.
In 2020, the world's top 500 companies were announced, of which Japan was on the list of 53, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi. What is less known behind these familiar brands is that more than 90% of the 53 companies on the list are from Japan's six major chaebols. Taking the Mitsubishi Foundation as an example, there were 8 companies belonging to the Mitsubishi Foundation in the Fortune 500 in 2018, with a total profit of US$27.73 billion. In the same year, Wal-Mart, the top Fortune 500 list, made a profit of $6.67 billion. A Mitsubishi consortium makes more than four times more profits than Walmart Group.
And how Mitsubishi's heavenly family business is formed, the next thing is to invite today's protagonists: the ceiling of the Japanese chaebol, the greedy star of prison enlightenment, the younger brother of Sakamoto Ryoma, and the lifelong enemy of Eiichi Shibusawa - Yataro Iwasaki.
The enlightenment of the underground ronin
On December 11, 5th year of Tenbo, Yataro Iwasaki was born in the village of Iguchi, Tosa Yasugei County. At this time, there was still one year before the birth of Sakamoto Ryoma, who had turned his life, and six years before the birth of his lifelong enemy, Eiichi Shibusawa.
Although he was born early, Yataro's family background is really incomparable to the two men who have entangled him all his life. Friends who have seen this series should still have an impression. The Shibusawa family is rich and rich on Shikoku Island, and the Sakamoto family can buy a townsman in Tosa across classes.
But Yataro and his family are basically the other way around, specifically, their family belongs to the "underground ronin". Here's an explanation of what this "underground ronin" is about.
Friends who have seen Sakamoto Ryoma's issue should know that Tosa was a place in Japan at that time, young and old. The daimyo had no money, but the samurai below still had to be supported. But if your daimyo can't pay his salary, don't blame the samurai for finding their own meal tickets. So some samurai ran out of money and began to sell, first selling houses and then swords. Juggling and selling art as a bodyguard. Follow the daimyo, hungry for nine meals in three days. Seeing that you can't survive, then what to do, don't worry, aren't you still a samurai, the identity of a samurai can be sold. Especially in the Edo period, the Tokugawa family, fearing that their daimyo would rebel, limited the number of samurai in each domain. The identity of the samurai is not only cross-class, but also a turnip and a pit, which can naturally be sold at a good price.
But the samurai who sold a bottom are also aggrieved, back then, your famous words should not be forgotten, Laozi ancestor went out with you to cut people. Now you are down and say that you can't pay your salary, and in order not to burden you, I don't even have the status of a samurai, and I humiliate my ancestors when I say it.
Therefore, the daimyo took care of the emotions of this group of widows and children. Families who have held samurai status for more than 40 years are allowed to permanently saber without the need for a gift. Even if you are poor and sell your samurai status, it will work. It was regarded as leaving a low guarantee for the samurai, and this group of people above and below the civilian level were called "underground ronin".
The ancestors of the Yataro family were also people, and they saved some money by farming to buy a townsman. But then in time for the famine, he changed his status to rice in order to eat. In the back, their family is called Weasel Jerry - a litter is not as good as a litter. When it came to Yataro and his father's generation, the family base was as thin as Okamoto 001. Yataro and his father are heavy drinkers and gamblers, and have no skills other than fighting in the village entrance, and are a well-known negative teaching material in the village.
Originally, according to this script, Yataro had a hard time building a file. But God gave Yataro his dad a buff -- handsome. According to the Iwasaki family's biography "Publication Guild", Yataro's father took Miwa, the third young lady of the Iwasaki family of Tosa Kimoto.
Yataro's mother was very powerful, and in addition to having the ability to read that was rare among women of that era, as the daughter of the Kimoto family, she also practiced the beak knife at the Oguri-ryu dojo for many years. By the way, this dojo has also produced another well-known alumnus. Not famous, it is also the top three players of the Japanese Historical Hall of Fame - Sakamoto Ryoma.
That is, relying on his mother's relationship, Yataro received a good education from an early age, and the Chinese poems he wrote at the age of 14 received a commendation from the lord. The title is probably "My Uncle Flagbook" or something. Today, it is equivalent to winning the third prize in the district essay competition.
When Yataro was 20 years old, he was allowed to study in Edo because his grades were too good. On the way to Shangjing, Yataro, who was holding a full scholarship, met a rich guy who studied abroad at his own expense, and this person was Sakamoto Ryoma, who influenced his life.
When he arrived in Edo, Yataro came under the door of a generation of great Confucian Ankigansai, and achieved excellent results. But no matter what the era, the higher the culture, the more reactionary. It didn't take long for Yataro, who was quite good at writing poetry, to get into trouble. And the source of the disaster came from his unconscious father.
At that time, Yataro's father drank too much and beat the village chief, so the local authorities demanded that the father lose money, and the father was thrown into the number without money. When the news came, Yataro hurried home from school to get people. Later, the father fished it out, but Yataro was very upset, according to the father, he did not break anyone, and was locked up to say that it was because of the eyebrows between the village chief and the pursuer.
But Yataro, who had been in Edo for a long time, forgot that since ancient times, the royal power did not go down to the prefecture. Generals talk about the law at the door, and people in the countryside and villages.
Unable to see the village chief and Yataro, who pursues the secret song, ran to the shosho in the middle of the night and carved two verses on the gate: No bribe is an official, and crime is judged by joy and evil.
This silly boy probably thought that what he wrote was okay, and went home to sleep.
As a result, the next day, before the porridge for breakfast was finished, Yataro was thrown in on charges of disturbing public order. It can be said that it was this prison experience that changed Yataro's three views. It also contributed to his first enlightenment.
Because the father is unreliable, the mother-in-law naturally does not care about this nephew. Yataro, who was thrown into the trumpet, squatted in it for seven months because there was no one to fish, but as the saying goes, some people go to prison to hang themselves, and some people are in the enlightenment. These seven months became the business enlightenment assault class of Yataro, a small-town subject. The main teacher was a timber smuggler with whom he was imprisoned.
At that time, Japan's prison income generation method was basically only bail money and no sewing machine, and Yataro, who had no one on bail, chatted blindly with his cellmates every day when he was idle, Yataro talked to his cellmates about Edo, and his cellmates told Yataro about various underground operations in business. Different from the Shibusawa family's business experience of reciprocal equality and righteousness and profit, the business experience taught by the cellmates to Yataro is a lot more unpretentious, basically: pull gangs and factions to pit fellow villagers, don't pretend in your heart when things happen, if you want people to live well, it is indispensable to send money to hook women. Unpretentious, but universal in ancient and modern times.
These seven months are crucial for Yataro, in addition to the business foundation, Yataro wants to understand a truth: he is a ronin, no matter how good the book is, it is useless. It is better to concentrate on how to make money.
So after being released from prison, Yataro began his own road to making money.
Greedy Sirius descends
Yataro, who was determined to make money, sorted out his thoughts after he was released from prison. In Japan at that time, if you wanted to make money, you could only climb relationships. But if you want to climb high branches, you have to have a ladder, just in the situation of this horse stirrup short in your own home, the high branches are out of reach, so burn the cold stove. His goal was Toyo Yoshida, the later promoter of Tosa's modernization.
At that time, although Yoshida Toyo was a high-ranking samurai, he offended the lord's brother-in-law Fu because he wanted to reform the finances of the clan, and he was idle at home. The idle haired Yoshida opened a private school, and this time it echoed it. So the small-town writer Yataro saw the sky and wrote poems. Finally, one day, Yoshida, who was annoyed and couldn't do it, agreed to see Yataro. And it was such an opportunity, Yataro seized it quite steadily. He impressed Yoshida Toyo with a small essay with considerable business insight. The two became mentors and friends.
In the second year, the lord thoroughly investigated his brother-in-law who was eating Naka in the domain. Yoshida Toyo was reactivated. At that time, the black ship came to Hangzhou, and for Yoshida, who had been committed to reform, the good news was spread in the delivery room - he was promoted, and his post was directly drawn to the Tosa Domain to participate in politics. When I got up, I naturally wanted to bring my little brother. As a result, Yataro Iwasaki was sent by Yoshida to Nagasaki, the only Kaifu in Japan at that time, to learn advanced experience. Then, Yataro, who spent public money to increase his knowledge, put into practice the business methodology he learned in prison for the first time. And then come to the conclusion that this stuff works.
Six months later, Yataro returned to Tosa after his visa expired. Just in time for Tosa to deepen his reforms, Yoshida's reforms at that time were simple, with one central idea - to develop the economy. Concentrate on the economy and devote ourselves to development. Yataro, who had eaten and seen it, naturally reacted, this is to engage in infrastructure construction.
At that time, the biggest infrastructure project that Tosa could undertake was the reclamation of land and farmland. Otherwise, what else can you do, repair the high-speed? So, Yataro, who smelled the business opportunity, hurriedly borrowed money everywhere and bought back the identity of the townsman. Otherwise, if you wait for the government to bid, you will not be qualified to bid yourself.
And according to the policy at that time, if it was a civilian status, the land that was cleared out of the land was two or eight open between himself and the domain. Eighty percent is from the people, and these two percent still have to look at the face of the samurai master. But if it is a villager, everyone is of the same class, and they must take care of each other. You can make it four or six in your own domain, and you can pick and take these four percent.
But if you think that Yataro borrowed money to buy his identity just to pick a hoe, you would underestimate him, Yataro used his relationship with Yoshida to come to a large number of wasteland indicators. Then he wooed the gentry and contracted it to those merchants who did not have the status of samurai, and made a general contract themselves.
The merchants were happy because Yataro offered them two and a half percent. Keep one and a half for yourself. The saying is: we are all villagers, I lose a little.
Yoshida was also happy because Yataro was able to use the merchant's capital to reclaim more wasteland indicators. The saying is: Leader, you can rest assured, the leader's expectation is the goal of my struggle, and it is my duty to revitalize my hometown.
In the end, Yataro was also happy, because he fished half of the entire plate without even touching the hoe. Under this dual-track mechanism, Yataro easily became the richest man in the village and completed the class leap.
But the richest man in a small village could no longer satisfy Yataro's appetite. Yataro, who had seen modern industry, began to blow the wind to Yoshida: If we want to develop, we have to engage in industry. Industry is the foundation of the country and the key to rejuvenating the country. Yoshida listened and looked Yataro up and down: It's really a talent to let your kid farm, tomorrow you will report to the Tosa Nagasaki Chamber of Commerce. The Tosa Nagasaki Chamber of Commerce, as you can tell by its name, is an organization officially chartered by Tosa to do business with foreigners through Nagasaki. As soon as Yataro entered, he found that this long look familiar, who - Sakamoto Ryoma.
Next, Yataro, who received the official authorization, began to run around with Sakamoto Ryoma, who at that time was bent on promoting the Satsunaga Alliance. Today the grain is delivered to Satsuma, tomorrow the gun is transported to Cheung Chau. Yataro looked at Ryoma's running figure and was puzzled, and said: Big brother, it is worthy of you. In the war years, you can still lose money by doing arms and food trading. This is an ordinary person, and it is embarrassing not to double the net worth in a year.
Ryoma's explanation is simple: the country is progressing, and progress comes at a price. I don't have to slow down the pace of national progress for the sake of some profit. Yataro may not understand Ryoma's words, but the future Ryoma paints is indeed what he wants. Since Ryoma wants to build a future for the country, then I will help you earn capital.
As a result, the daily affairs of the Tosa Nagasaki Chamber of Commerce slowly fell on Yataro. During this period, Yataro imported and exported with his left hand and transported by sea and land with his right, and the business flourished, adding two steam ships and a large number of guns to the Chamber of Commerce. With the success of the Qingfeng Pavilion talks, the Coast Aid Corps was established. More and more partners gathered around, including the later Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, the Senate Que Sasaki Takayuki, the first Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nobuyuki Nakajima, and the first captain of the Navy, Kanno Kyobei....
At this time, Yataro traveled back and forth to Nagasaki-Yokohama and other places as the manager of the Naval Aid Corps to raise funds for the Naval Aid Team. At this time, he is full of hope for the future, because the big government is still imminent, and the business in the future is better. But it all ended on the night of December 10, 1867, when Sakamoto Ryoma was assassinated by a careerist, completely disheartening Yataro with the country.
Since then, Yataro has rejected all kinds of isms, but he is keen to make friends with various forces, and everything has become a center of interests. In a sense, the once hot-blooded ideal youth died in Omiya along with Sakamoto Ryoma. And the only one who survived was the greedy Sirius who swore money in Tosa prison.
The rise of empires
With the establishment of the Meiji government, the abolition of feudal prefectures was implemented throughout the country. Correspondingly, the former Tosa Nagasaki Chamber of Commerce is a relic of the old era and needs to face the reform of the state-run system. Yataro's opportunity has come, and those who are familiar with history should be able to guess what happened during this period. Anyway, as a result, the Tosa-Nagasaki Chamber of Commerce was renamed the Ninety-Nine Chamber of Commerce, and the monogram became three centripetal diamonds. It officially became a private trading company, and the president was Yataro Iwasaki.
After taking over the trading company, Yataro first bought two steam steamships originally valued at 240,000 taels of silver, as well as some docks, warehouses, and small cargo ships that had no valuation at all.
You know, at this time, there were only 25 steam freighters in all of Japan. In other words, Yataro at this time had 8% of Japan's shipping capacity. Just as he was about to break into the shipping industry, he encountered the biggest obstacle of his life, the Mitsui Chamber of Commerce, and the man behind Mitsui was named Inoue Shin. But what really made Yataro shudder was the cold eyes coming from Inoue Shin's side. This look comes from his lifelong enemy, Eiichi Shibusawa.
At this time, the Mitsui family had 13 steam ships, accounting for more than half of Japan's shipping capacity. The source of these 13 ships is actually similar to Mitsubishi, and they were all sold and half given to the Mitsui family by the Meiji government. But the predecessor of these 13 ships was the state-run Mail Steamship Company. This company was run by Eiichi Shibusawa, who returned from a trip to Europe that year. In other words, Mitsui was chosen by the central government.
This gap opened up at once, in terms of origin, when you Yataro was contracting projects in the village, Eiichi was a shogun and a shogun. In terms of resume, when you Yataro ate and drank at Nagasaki's public funds, Eiichi went to Europe to travel. In terms of power, Shibusawa Eiichi is now the director of the Internal Revenue Service, and Yataro you have some influence in the country, but you don't have any official status.
But Yataro is also mixed with the popular king Sakamoto Ryoma at the end of the curtain, and you can't let us all disband. Yataro immediately made an important speech on the company's intranet, which roughly means: all 007, stop the ship, and kill Mitsui quickly.
Yataro's first step was a price war, which everyone is familiar with. But the premise of the price war is that you have to have a thick principal, and you can't run more than a dozen Mitsui ships even if you are tired of a few boats in Mitsubishi.
In fact, Yataro knows this in his heart, but it doesn't matter. What I work on is to sink the market, and the big ship pulls the big cargo. But how many large pieces can the people have, just pull some agricultural products back and forth in these domestic ports, and I can sail it. And the common people will not have money to ride on your steamship. My side is slower or slower, but the price is low and the boat is more good. This is like the rich drinking the cellar, the boss drinking the old, then the workers can't seek a drunkenness?
In addition, in addition to Yang Mo, Mitsubishi also has a lot of tricks, Yataro raised a group of post-war ronin at various docks, and made trouble when he saw Mitsui's ship. Although I don't dare to sink your ship, I can disgust and disgust you. And the local police basically collected Mitsubishi's money. Yataro remembered the truth that the royal power does not go down to the prefecture, and the broken incident in the Ministry of Finance alone will make you one and five labors and seven wounds. Can you take care of so many docks in the country? In this way, one came and went, and the share of the civilian market Mitsubishi finished Mitsubishi Mitsui.
After earning his first pot of gold by sinking the market, Yataro felt that he could go head-to-head with Mitsui in the high-end market. As a result, as soon as he went, he was taught a lesson by Rongichi. At that time, Mitsui was in the business of transporting tribute rice to the government, and people had a stable cash flow. You want to play a price war, right, Mitsui freight directly cut to a third. But Yataro doesn't have this capital, if he wants to be cheaper than Mitsui, he will not make up for it by sinking into the market to earn that money.
But the turnaround came. At that time, a customer of Mitsubishi had a copper mine, and due to the arrears of freight costs, Mitsubishi half-bought and half-deducted the plate, and this plate was really revitalized. By the way, this copper mine is still there, and it is an important part of Nikkei 255 - Mitsubishi Materials Co., Ltd.
Since then, Mitsubishi has the ability to confront Mitsui, but if it still fights a price war, it can only be an involution in the industry, and it is not beneficial to anyone. So Yataro rolled his eyes, and the opposite guarantee that Ryoma had made on both sides of Sacho had inspired him.
At that time, shipping users generally had a pain point, that is, everyone recognized the goods on delivery, but the funds were cyclical, and the sooner the payment was made, the better. So Yataro invented a financial instrument. Similar to today's warehouse receipt financing. Specifically, as long as the goods are on board, I will give you a part of the loan according to the payment of the goods, and then you will pay me back when the buyer pays. If the goods turn over, you don't have to pay back the money, and I will compensate you for the goods. What, you can't believe me, I have such a big copper mine pressed here, can I still run?
In this way, for customers, the account period can be shortened and the funds can be collected in the first time. This temptation is too great, which makes many high-quality customers prefer to choose Mitsubishi Shipping.
While Yataro was waiting for Eiichi to accept the recruitment, news came from Tokyo that Shibusawa Eiichi and Inoue Shinichi had resigned due to dissatisfaction with Okubo and other war factions. The obstructive man finally left, and Mitsubishi began to encroach on the market share of shipping in all directions. At this time, Rong Yi took the lead in setting up various industries in China.
A few years later, the Southwest War broke out. Mr. Yataro hitched a ride with Shigenobu Okuma, and then through Shigenobu Okuma hooked up with Ōkubo Litsu. said that he is willing to contribute to the country, what kind of freight, how can he collect money for the country. Okubo listened, Iwasaki-san, you are really good. So the government funded the purchase of 13 steam ships for Mitsubishi. And this fund was originally left by Inoue Shin to build hospitals and schools in China. By this time, Inoue had died of illness, and Eiichi established the Tokyo Commercial Law Council to stabilize Japanese private prices.
After the end of the Southwest War, Okubo Litsu was assassinated, and Yataro Iwasaki actively approached Ito Hirofumi, and made a fortune during the subsequent war. Since then, Mitsubishi has surpassed Mitsui to become Japan's No. 1 chaebol.
postscript
On February 7, 1885, Yataro Iwasaki, who single-handedly founded the Mitsubishi Empire, died at home of stomach cancer due to long-term alcoholism. When the news came out, Shibusawa Eiichi, who was regarded as a lifelong enemy by Yataro Iwasaki, sighed: Although he has genius, he has no virtue for the people, which is a pity. Although he once followed benevolent people, he was not contaminated with benevolence, which is lamentable.
Mitsubishi was then succeeded by his younger brother Yanosuke Iwasaki. It is still following the road of collusion between officials and businessmen and profiting from war. After the end of World War II, according to the policy of the five-star emperor General Arthur, all Japanese chaebols were forced to disband. Mitsubishi was divided into 139 companies and was not allowed to use the "Mitsubishi" logo. Even so, the Iwasaki family retains a 47.8% stake in Mitsubishi companies.
With the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States loosened its economic control over Japan, and the chaebol clique took advantage of the situation to re-emerge.
In the 21st century, the Mitsubishi Group still owns high-quality companies such as Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Tokyo Marine Fire Insurance.
From the shogunate to the present, more than 200 years of ups and downs, countless chaebol crises, four economic depressions alone, two world wars, defeats in the middle war, financial crisis, forced disintegration, and political party changes, this kind of crisis is a disaster for any enterprise, and the Japanese chaebol has survived to this day.