General Douglas MacArthur disbanded the zaibatsu shortly after the war, but Mitsubishi regrouped via cross- shareholdings.
By the second world war it had grown into Japan's second zaibatsu (after Mitsui) and diversified into everything from aeroplanes to beer.
Mr Son has talked of creating an Internet zaibatsu, a reference to Japan's pre-war holding companies that combined financial and industrial interests in large conglomerates.
ECONOMIST: Is Softbank��s Internet empire as strong as it looks?
It talks about a new sort of Internet zaibatsu, a reference to the giant pre-war holding companies that combined financial and industrial interests in sprawling conglomerates.
Son calls his empire an Internet zaibatsu.
CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Asian Newsmaker 1999: Masayoshi Son--Page 1
Since Japan is struggling to free itself from a banking crisis caused partly by widespread connected lending (thanks to the system of corporate groups known as keiretsu, today's variant on the zaibatsu), Mr Ochi's preferences seem most peculiar.
It is not known if Mitsubishi is unwinding its cross-shareholdings, but, since the memory of the zaibatsu that was dismantled 50 years ago still plays a big role in corporate decisions, it is unlikely that this is happening fast.
If that scenario pans out, it will mean an end to ways of doing business that date back to the early part of this century, when Japanese companies were grouped as zaibatsu (the precursors of today's keiretsu) and backed by the government.
Since Japan Inc took a major body blow in 1990, the remains of the Japanese zaibatsu the large conglomerates assembled over decades, centuries, even, out of the interests of ancient Samurai families and former sake vendors have been on the ropes.
In this context, then, it is interesting to watch the evolution of Panasonic, the heritor brand of Matsushita, a venerable name that never quite reached the status of zaibatsu or keiretsu (another type of Japanese conglomerate), but still narrowly missed being broken up in the industrial reforms that took place in post-World War II Japan.
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