Sōgō Shōsha

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The Sōgō Shōsha ( Japanese 総 合 商社 , dt. 'General trading company') are large Japanese trading houses that operate internationally. As generalists, these companies deal with everything: raw materials, intermediate products, finished products and services, be it chemicals, textiles, power plants and similar large-scale systems and electronics. The sales structure includes branch offices, such as branches, subsidiaries and affiliated companies. The Japanese trading houses fulfill an essential function for the Japanese economy: they support the sale of Japanese products and services around the world. Historically, Japanese manufacturers often refrained from setting up their own sales channels in order to concentrate on their core competence in production and left this role to a trading company.

Within Japan, the big trading houses pass their wares on to the wholesale chains, who then sell them on to the smaller retail chains. Furthermore, the Sogo Shosha often only act as brokers of large deals.

Originally, from the beginning of industrialization at the end of the 19th century until the end of the Second World War, the trading houses were an integral part of the Zaibatsu . These were large industrial conglomerates, consisting of various production companies, a house bank and a trading house. With the smashing of these structures by the Allied occupation government, the trading houses became nominally independent, but in fact they remained closely linked to the other companies of the conglomerate ( keiretsu ) through cross-shareholdings . The Sogo Shosha had its heyday from the 1960s to the 1980s, from the beginning of high growth to the bursting of the bubble economy .

By the globalization from the 1990s, the importance took off the large trading houses. Japanese companies are increasingly looking for direct contact with their foreign partners, and in the domestic market, discounters are increasingly bypassing traditional sales channels.

The seven major trading houses

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