Itochu

Itoh dies and his second son, also named Chubei, inherits the business. Itoh merges with Marubeni and Kishimoto & Company to form Sanko K.K. Japanese government orders Sanko, Daido Trading, and a subsidiary of Itoh called Kureha Textiles to merge and form a new company, Daiken Manufacturing. SCAP, the military occupation authority, orders Daiken divided into several separate companies, including C. Itoh & Company, Ltd. Company takes 40 percent stake in new joint venture, Japan Communications Satellite Co. Company writes off US$662 million in nonperforming assets in aftermath of the bursting of the Japanese bubble economy. Restructuring continues with the disposal or writing off of US$1.8 billion in bad loans and nonperforming assets. Global-2000 strategic plan is launched, aiming to shift ITOCHU to a holding company structure by March 2001; US$2.38 billion in additional nonperforming assets are written off. ITOCHU Corporation is the third largest of Japan's general trading companies--which are known as sogo shosha- trailing only Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corporation. These companies are general in nature both in that they handle a wide range of products and services in nearly every industry, and in that they can handle a broad range of functions. General trading companies specialize in bringing together--on a global level--buyers and sellers of a variety of products and services and handling finance and transport of the resulting transaction; the companies derive most of their revenues from commissions earned through these short-term transactions. In the late 20th century, however, many of the sogo shosha, including ITOCHU, were increasingly turning to longer term equity investments in joint ventures and affiliates. Known as C. Itoh & Company, Ltd. from 1949 through 1992, ITOCHU was also in the process of shifting to a holding company structure as it approached the 21st century. At the same time, ITOCHU was focusing more of its resources on key strategic business areas: information and multimedia industries, with involvement in broadcasting, content, network businesses, and mobile multimedia; consumer and retail, with activities in convenience stores, food, and textiles; financial services, including foreign exchange trading, securities investments, business financing, insurance, and online securities brokerage services; and natural resource development, which includes investments in petroleum, liquefied natural gas, and other fuels. ITOCHU has a global network of more than 1,000 subsidiaries and affiliated companies in more than 80 countries. ITOCHU's founder, Chubei Itoh, was born in 1842, the son of a dry goods merchant. In 1853, the year Admiral Perry from the United States 'opened' Japan to international trade, Itoh began to accompany his older brother on sales trips to Osaka and Kyoto. By 1858 the younger Itoh was making his own sales trips, selling cloth to merchants in Okayama and Hiroshima. Two years later, at the age of 18, he established his own wholesale business and worked diligently to expand his small operation. The 1860s were a time of upheaval and change in Japan. The 264-year-old government of the Tokugawa Shogun was overthrown in 1868 by loyalists of the Meiji Emperor. Itoh's business continued to prosper in spite of the civil war. In 1872 he opened a small shop in Osaka and within five years was one of the largest textile wholesaler-retailers in the city. A branch was opened in Kyoto in 1883, and the Osaka shop was designated the Itoh Honten, or 'head office.' Chubei Itoh and his nephew Tetsujiro Sotoumi opened a third shop in Kobe in 1885. The Itoh-Sotoumi Company was primarily involved in the exportation of textile goods through shokan, or foreign trading agents. The export trade was very profitable, in spite of the shokan, who collected large commissions. Profits from export sales were reinvested in the company's domestic operations. Itoh opened a foreign office in Shanghai in an effor