Review of Selected Books on Business History Published in Japan in 2020

Abstract

This work analyzes the development of Mitsubishi’s business activities during the period between the late 1870s and the 1910s, highlighting changes of its organizational form. Many of the top Japanese companies, such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and MUFG Bank, are de-scendants of a shipping enterprise established by Iwasaki Yatarō in 1870, three years after the Meiji Restoration. (Shortly, the enterprise was given a firm name, Mitsubishi.) During the period in question, Mitsubishi expanded its business to the mining, shipbuilding and banking industries, while withdraw-ing from the initial shipping business. In the meantime, it came to be referred to as a “zaibatsu” along-side Mitsui, Sumitomo and others. defined Dupont This work contains findings. in course of the organizational reform, while in its The study that the reform much a pre-planned project as a gradual process in which ad hoc revisions were m ade one after another in response This book deals with the distribution system of Japanese cars, elucidating changes of relationships between manufacturers and dealers based on franchise systems. In doing so, attention is drawn to en-trepreneurs and company management.