Idemitsu Sazo

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Tomb of Idemitsu Sazō (2011)

Idemitsu Sazō ( Japanese 出 光 佐 三 ; born August 22, 1885 in Akama, today Munakata (Kyushu); † March 7, 1981 ) was a Japanese entrepreneur in the oil industry (founder of Idemitsu Kōsan ) and art collector, who after World War II as conservative agitator for "traditional Japanese values" was active.

Life path

Idemitsu Sazō, 2nd son of a paint wholesaler who was ailing as a child, attended the commercial school in Fukuoka from 1901, then from 1905 the Kobe Commercial College (today: Kobe University ). He had seven siblings. After completing his studies, he did not enter a large company, but learned as a businessman at the comparatively small trading company Sakai Shōten ( 酒井 商店 ) in Kobe . Soon after, his father's small business went bankrupt. In order to be able to support the family, Sazō decided to become self-employed. During his studies he had given tutoring to the son of Hida Jūtarō ( 日 田 重 太郎 ). He received from this 1911 ¥  6000 start-up financing for his company Idemitsu Shōkai ( 出 光 商会 ), which initially did not flourish in Moji (now part of Kitakyūshū ). He sold Nippon Sekiyu's products and supplied fishing boats.

He became economically more successful when he was allowed to supply the southern Manchurian railway with lubricants from 1914 . In doing so, he developed oils suitable for the harsh winters. He married Yasuko ( 山 内 靖 子 ), daughter of Yamanouchi Toyoyuki. Their eldest daughter is the video artist and feminist Mako Idemitsu .

Through clever storage, his customers were able to supply petroleum products throughout the First World War. In the next few years he expanded with branches in China and the Japanese colonies. "Creative accounting" and dumping were common business practices. By 1922 he had achieved that his company, with just over 100 employees, was selling 11% of Nippon Sekiyu's sales. After 1932 the trade in petroleum products came under increasing state control. Idemitsu achieved a monopoly-like position in the occupied territories of northern China by supplying the military. In addition, the company diversified into transport with its own tankers. In the late 1930s he was Honorary Consul for Manchukuo in Moji.

In 1937 he was appointed to the House of Lords as one of the representatives of the largest taxpayers , and soon gave up the seat after his re-election in 1939. In 1940 Idemitsu reorganized his company to form the Idemitsu Kosan Co. ( 出 光 興 産 株式会社 ). The company headquarters were moved to the capital. His paternalistic attitude had a positive effect insofar as he did not dismiss any of his 1,000 or so employees, who were repatriated from overseas after the capitulation of Japan , during the difficult post-war years. The first major order after the war was in 1946 to empty the submarine tanks of the Tokuyama naval base ( Shūnan ). After the MITI had to dissolve the monopoly of Nippon Oil after the war, Idemitsu managed to get on the list of ten authorized distributors in 1949. He bought petrol from the USA and crude oil mainly from Venezuela and Iran, where he managed to negotiate particularly low prices after the nationalization of the oil wells in 1953 (" Abadan crisis "). BP had its tanker Nishomaru confiscated. He was also able to get his imports from the Soviet Union in the 1960s well below world market prices. In both cases, he circumvented corresponding western trade restrictions. The first refinery of its own was built in Tokuyama in 1957. With the Petroleum Association of Japan (controlled by MITI) he went on a course of confrontation during the seafarers' strike in 1965. Over the years the company has been strongly integrated vertically ; H. they controlled the import, processing and distribution.

Idemitsu retired from the post of president to chairman of the board in 1966. True to the principle “do good and talk about it,” he donated generously, e.g. B. Fukuoka College of Education 300 million yen in 1973. He retired in 1972 and was called tenshu from then on. In the background, he continued the aggressive expansion of the company against foreign competitors. His younger brother Idemitsu Keisuke ( 出 光 計 助 , 1900–94) succeeded him as president . His eldest son Shōsuke (* 1927) ran the company from 1981–93.

Philosophy of work

Idemitsu Sazō stood for a paternalistic relationship between labor and capital, in keeping with Confucian morality. For his employees he laid down seven principles, which are: “Don't be a slave…:” of mammon, of education, of power, of an organization, numbers and ideas, ideologies and western morality. He demanded “respect for people” ( ningen sonchō ) in the sense of so-called “traditional Japanese values” (such as kokutai and dōtoku ), which as such are essentially constructs of the Meiji period and whose propagation he devoted himself into old age. The term "emperor" for the "heavenly majesty," the Tennō , he rejected as offensive.

There was no time recording, layoffs or mandatory retirement age in the company, but there was also no union, no overtime payment and “no publication of salaries.” According to the boss, the work was meant to be a livelihood and was not just “ selling the workforce . ”The employees were given extensive freedom of choice and personal responsibility by Japanese standards. The resulting self-exploitation was seen as motivating (see intrapreneurship ). The whole thing was trimmed with the concept of an allegedly original Japanese harmony ( wa ). Soldier virtues and training methods as well as the discipline within the Soka Gakkai served as a model . On the occasion of Mishima Yukio's funeral, Idemitsu paid the greatest respect to this and the ideas he represented.

Idemitsu Kosan among the successors

During the patriarch's lifetime, the company was deliberately only marginally capitalized. For example, in 1975 it had a billion yen in capital, 1,500 billion yen in sales, and 300 billion yen in long-term debt. At that time the company operated five refineries (daily capacity: 760,000 barrels ), two petrochemical factories, its own tanker fleet ( Idemitsu Tanker Co., approx. 1.7 million GRT ), 24 foreign branches and over 10,000 employees. The low capital and the high level of outside financing led to a debt crisis in 1993–2002. The company has not been run by family members since 2002.

The company, which has only been listed on the stock exchange since October 2006, now operates around 5,000 petrol stations in Japan, mostly under the Apollo brand, which was introduced in 1952 . The Idemitsu Petrochemical subsidiary sells petrochemical products . Idemitsu Chemicals Europe PLC and BASF Idemitsu Co. Ltd. are represented in Europe . The company was the second largest Japanese refinery operator in 2008 and number 26 in the industry worldwide. The company is now also involved in oil fields (off Norway, Vietnam and in Russia), uranium mines and pharmaceutical companies and supplies components for LED screens.

Art collection

Idemitsu Bijutsukan in Kitakyūshū (2008)

Idemitsu bought his first work of art at the age of 20, a painting by the Chinese monk Putai (Japanese: Hotei ), drawn by Sengai (1751-1837), a monk of Shōfuku-ji (Fukuoka) , whose Zen philosophy impressed him. In later years, the focus of the collection became Chinese ceramics and works by Itaya Hazan ( 板 谷 波 山 ; 1872–1963), Kosugi Hōan (1881–1964) and, after a personal meeting in 1959, Sam Francis . His private collection in the Idemitsu Art Museum in Tokyo has been open to the public since 1966, with a branch in Moji since 2000.

In 1976 he was awarded the French Order of Culture ( Ordre des Arts et des Lettres ).

Works and literature

The works published under his name are often commissioned to propagate his ideas of “traditional Japan”, and they are permeated by the spirit of Yamato damashii . This includes:

  • Marukusu ga Nihon ni umarete itara, 1966 ("If Marx had been born in Japan ...")
  • Hataraku hito no shihonshugi, 1969 ("Capitalism of the hard- working man")
  • Nihonjin ni kaere! ("Become a [true] Japanese again!")
  • The eternal Japan: Conversations with Sazo Idemitsu, p. l. 1978 (iK; © 1975)
  • Berend Wispelwey (ed.); Japanese Biographical Archives; Munich 2007, ISBN 3-598-34014-1 , Fiche 93
  • Kikkawa, Takeo (* 1951); 出 光 佐 三: 黄金 の 奴隷 た る な か れ[Idemitsu Sazō: ōgon no dorei taru nakare]; Kyoto 2012 (Mineruva Shobō), ISBN 9784623063697
  • Kikkawa, Takeo; Conditions of innovative entrepreneur activities, Sazō Idemitsu (Idemitsu Shōkai / Kosan); in: Casebook: Management activities of Japanese companies, Vol. 4; Tokyo 1998 (Yuhikaku)
  • Saitō Tomoaki; The Growth and Limitations of Idemitsu Kosan: Gentleman-merchant Management; in: Yuzawa Takeshi; Japanese Business Success: The Evolution of a Strategy; London, New York 1995
  • エ ン リ コ ・ マ ッ テ ィ と 出 光 佐 三 、 山下 太郎: 戦 後 石油 産業 の 日 伊 比較 (2004; comparison of the oil industries in Italy and Japan in the post-war period)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the not always clean business practices of the time, cf. Young, Louise; Japan's Total Empire. Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism; Berkeley et al .: University of California Press 1999 (Paperback; original edition 1998)
  2. Jump up to 1986. See: Fill 'er up. (Japanese gasoline prices drop as a 1986 law protecting the country's major petroleum wholesalers from outside competition is abolished); Economist (US), v 338, no. 7959, 1996 March 30, p. 1 (1) (ISSN: 0013-0613)
  3. ^ Persian Oil For Japan. . In: Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld .: 1885-1954) , National Library of Australia, April 13, 1953, p. 1. Retrieved May 29, 2013. 
  4. ^ Court Rejects Appeal On Cargo Of Oil. . In: The West Australian (Perth, WA: 1879-1954) , National Library of Australia, May 28, 1953, p. 1. Retrieved May 29, 2013. 
  5. ↑ 店主 wtl. “ Shop owner”, another possible spelling would be 天主 “Lord of Heaven,” which should have corresponded to his self-image.
  6. ↑ cf. Terminal condition: Japan's oil industry; Economist (US), v 341, no.7989, 1996 Oct 26, p. 80 (3) (ISSN: 0013-0613)
  7. ↑ Fortune Global 500; in: Fortune Magazine , July 21, 2008.
  8. ↑ In the Vietnamese refinery building, the wheat is separated from the chaff; bfai - countries and markets. November 4, 2009
  9. ↑ 働 く 人 in the figurative sense: "workhorse".
  10. ↑ Japanese as: Eien no Nippon 2600nen to 3000nen - "Eternal Japan: between the year 2600 and 3000." The title alludes to the legendary founding of an empire in 1940 by the militarist government (see Japanese mythology ).

See also

Web links

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Idemitsu is the family name, Sazō the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Idemitsu Sazo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 出 光 佐 三 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION japanese businessman
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Akama, today Munakata
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1981