Shibusawa Eiichi

Shibusawa Eiichi

Shibusawa, Tokyo

Shibusawa Eiichi ( Japanese 渋 沢 栄 一 ; born March 16, 1840 in Chiaraijima , Hanzawa-gun , Musashi Province (now Fukaya , Saitama Prefecture ); died November 11, 1931 ) was a Japanese entrepreneur of the Meiji period and the central figure in economic development after the end of Japan's closure . In 1900 he was made a baron and in 1920 a vice count.

life and work

Shibusawa Eiichi, son of a wealthy farming family in Saitama Prefecture, who also engaged in silk farming and indigo production, left his home in 1863 for Edo and became an employee of the Hitotsubashi family, a branch of the Tokugawa family. From 1867 to 1868 he accompanied the younger brother of the Shogun, Tokugawa Akitake (徳 川 昭武, 1853-1910), to the world exhibition in Paris , where he got to know the European economic system for the first time.

In 1869 he moved to the Ministry of Finance and worked, supported by Ōkuma Shigenobu and Inoue Kaoru , on tax reform, currency reform and banking. In 1873 he left the government to start his own company. In the same year he founded the "Dai-Ichi Bank", the later Dai-ichi Kangyō Bank and now the Mizuhō Bank and was able to organize over 250 companies in all economic sectors with this important bank and participate in over 500, which gave him the nickname " Father of Japanese Capitalism ”.

Shibusawa played an important role in building up new western industries such as the Ōji Seishi paper mill started in 1873 and the Osaka weaving mill founded in 1882. But he also endeavored to improve training in the economic sector, to create an economy that felt obliged to the state and society. He was involved in the establishment of the first Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the "Tōkyō Shōhō kaigisho" (東京 商法 会議 所), of which he was president from 1878 to 1905.

His company conglomerate was often viewed as "Shibusawa- Zaibatsu ", although his companies were more weakly connected to one another than was the case with the great Zaibatsu.

Shibuzawa, who never amassed great personal wealth, retired from active business in 1909, but remained an important advisor in the business world until his death. He campaigned for the improvement of international relations, especially those with the USA. - In 1917 he organized the establishment of the RIKEN research facility proposed by Takamine Jōkichi (1854–1922) .

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Shibusawa Eiichi. In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , pp. 608-609.
• Janet Hunter: Shibusawa Eiichi. In: Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Kodansha International, 1984, ISBN 4-7700-1193-8 .

Web links

Commons : Shibusawa Eiichi  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Shibuzawa is the family name, Eiichi the first name.