Iwasaki Yataro Born: 9-Jan-1835 Birthplace: Aki, Japan Died: 7-Feb-1885 Location of death: Tokyo, Japan Cause of death: unspecified
Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: Asian Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Business Nationality: Japan Executive summary: Founder of the Mitsubishi companies His family had been samurai but his grandfather sold their samurai status to settle debts many years before Iwasaki Yataro was born, so he worked as a low-level clerk for the Tosa feudal fiefdom. Apt with numbers, he was promoted to head Tosa's Nagasaki offices, and took control of their Osaka operations when the Tosa clan was forced to disband in the late 1860s. Honoring his family and former employer, in 1870 he reorganized the operation as the Mitsubishi Trading Company, naming it after the Mitsubishi -- a crest designed by Yataro to merge the three-leaf emblem of the Tosa clan with his own family's stacked-diamond crest. Originally a shipping concern, under his leadership Mitsubishi quickly diversified into high finance, mining, and shoe repair (a lucrative line of work in the 19th century).
In more than a century since its founder's death the business has evolved into the vast interlocking Mitsubishi group of companies, including Mitsubishi Chemical, Mitsubishi Construction, Mitsubishi Corporation Capital, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Materials, Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Oil, Mitsubishi Plastics, Mitsubishi Rayon, Mitsubishi Steel, hundreds of other companies that include Mitsubishi in their titles and use the Mitsubishi crest as their trademark, and several hundred more companies that do not, including The Bank of Tokyo, Nikon Corp., NYK Line, and Union Bank of California. Brother: Iwasaki Yanosuke (Mitsubishi executive) Son: Iwasaki Hisaya (Mitsubishi executive) Daughter: Iwasaki Masako (married Japanese Prime Minister Kijuro Shidehara)
Mitsubishi Founder and President (1870-85)
Japanese Ancestry
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