Historically, it is interesting to note that it was under American influence that Japan decided in 1947 to dismantle its
zaibatsu.
While such groups (called
zaibatsu in Japan) are thought to have provided this coordination successfully in pre-second-world-war Japan after a state-run big push failed, it is still being debated whether such coordination is being successfully provided by pyramidal business groups that are found in developing countries in Asia.
After the war, the old
zaibatsu banks formed the core of new business associations called keiretsu, whose member companies hold equity stakes in each other's firms sharing voting rights and deciding policy in 'President's Assembly' (shacho-kai), regular meetings conducted confidentially among member chairmen, presidents and directors.
Independientemente de los logros economicos reflejados en una cada vez mayor participacion en el comercio internacional y de la asociacion economica entre el sector publico y privado de la primera guerra mundial aprovechados por los
zaibatsu (conglomerados de empresas japonesas), entre 1927 y 1929 cuando comenzaba a reinar Hirohito hubo un colapso de la economia debido a la caida de los precios del arroz y por efecto de la crisis financiera del pais en 1927.
Although
Zaibatsu were dissolved after World War II (WWII), they reemerged as keiretsu during the 1950s and 1960s (Berglof and Perotti, 1994).
Most of them are the businessmen who run the giant corporations that used to be called
zaibatsu (the pre-World War II industrial conglomerates) and the top layer of senior civil servants -- all of whom have been in bed with the LDP all of their working lives.
Los
zaibatsu eran grandes corporaciones monopolicas que controlaban la distribucion de sus productos y mantenian fuertes lazos con los bancos.
El sufragio universal, la libertad de prensa, las reformas antimonopolisticas contra los
zaibatsu (15), la liberacion de los prisioneros politicos, la reestructuracion de la propiedad de la tierra y la supresion de los elementos ultranacionalistas en la educacion son las columnas que levantan el edificio de un sistema parlamentario bicameral, donde el monarca entrega su soberania a la nacion (16).
By contrast, during the same period, Japan's economy was largely dominated by four distinct
zaibatsu, which are corporate entities "controlled by a single family" that managed a "combination of manufacturing, trading, and banking functions" (p.
The government's export drive also favored large firms, giving birth to a unique business organization in Korea called the chaebol (similar to the
zaibatsu in Japan before World War II).
Mining was the cash cow first for the Sumitomo family and then for the
zaibatsu bearing the same name.
Meanwhile, from the Land of the Free, comes SWORD, a high-tech commando unit in RoboCop-like suits that launches an attack on a secret conference held by villainous Nipponese
zaibatsu Daiwa Heavy Industries.
