was a Japanese businessman responsible for founding a number of companies, including what became today's

Sapporo Breweries is a Japanese beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo is the oldest brand of beer in Japan. It was first brewed in Sapporo, Japan, in 1876 by brewer Seibei Nakagawa. The world headquarters of Sapporo Breweries is in Ebisu, Shibuya, Toky ...

Oki Electric Industry , commonly referred to as OKI, OKI Electric or the OKI Group, is a Japanese information and communications technology company, headquartered in Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo and operating in over 120 countries around the world. OKI produced the fi ...

JFE Group is a corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was formed in 2002 by the merger of and and owns JFE Steel, JFE Engineering and Japan Marine United. JFE is from Japan, Fe (the chemical element symbol of iron) and Engineering. In 2020, i ...

and

Taiheiyo Cement is a Japanese cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggrega ...

(formerly Asano Cement). Asano souichiro

He came from a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

family in the Toyama region. He was Doctor Asano Taijun's son. He was originally named Asano Taijiro. Although He studied medicine, he began business in his hometown and failed. He lost his money and did moonlight flit to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. He sold drinking water as a street vendor. Then he moved to

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

, bought coke (fuel), which a gas company threw away, sold it to Fukagawa Cement Works, and became very rich. He purchased Fukagawa Cement Works from the government in 1884 (Asano Cement), with help from

Shibusawa Eiichi was a Japanese industrialist widely known today as the "father of Japanese capitalism". He spearheaded the introduction of Western capitalism to Japan after the Meiji Restoration. He introduced many economic reforms including use of double- ...

, founded Iwaki Coal Mine in 1884, Oriental Liner (Toyo Kisen) in 1896, Tsurumi Reclamation Company (Toa Construction Corporation) in 1913, Asano Shipbuilding and Engineering (

Japan Marine United (informally JMU) is a Japanese ship building marine engineering and service company headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. It's Japan’s second largest shipbuilder after Imabari Shipbuilding, with shipyard facilities in Kure, Hiroshima, Yokohama, ...

) in 1916, Nippon Chuya Bank in 1916, Oki Electric Industry in 1917, Asano and Company in 1918, Asano Holding Company in 1918, and diversified his business interests, which eventually became a minor

zaibatsu is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertically integrated business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period unt ...

(

Asano zaibatsu Asano zaibatsu 浅野財閥, one of the major second-tier zaibatsu (Conglomerate (company), conglomerates) in Japan, was founded in 1887 by Asano Sōichirō 浅野総一郎 with support from Shibusawa Eiichi 渋沢栄一, the founder of the Shibus ...

). His Nippon Chuya Bank was unsuccessful, so he sold it to Yasuda zaibatsu in 1922.

kept minor because it did not include a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

and was ranked fifth in scale. Asano is called "the cement king." Asano also reclaimed Tokyo bay from 1913 to 1927, made a coastal industrial zone (Keihin Kogyo Chitai) and established the forerunner of the JR

Tsurumi Line The Tsurumi Line ( ja, 鶴見線,) is a group of 3 railway lines operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Originally built to service the port and adjacent industrial area, the lines provide passenger serv ...

there, located between Tokyo and Yokohama.

Asano Station is a railway station on the Tsurumi Line in Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Asano Station is served by the Tsurumi Line, and forms a junction between the Tsurumi Main Lin ...

is named after him. He is called "father of Keihin industrial area" now. He founded Asano High School in 1920, and Asano Institute of Technology in 1925.Asano Institute of Technology
/ref>

References

External links

- '' Toa Construction Corporation''
''Yokohama City Library''

SatoshiSaito ''Soichiro Asano''
Japanese businesspeople 1848 births 1930 deaths People from Toyama Prefecture {{Japan-business-bio-stub