Koo Hsien-jung (;

Romaji The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as . Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Ch ...

: Ko Ken’ei; 2 February 1866 – 9 December 1937) was a

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

businessman and politician who enjoyed strong links to the colonial administration of Taiwan under Japanese rule. He founded the Koos Group of companies, the largest business group in Taiwan. Koo was a businessman at the time of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in which Qing dynasty China ceded Taiwan to Japan. When the Japanese forces arrived in Taiwan in 1895, Koo initiated contact with the Japanese forces in

Keelung Keelung () or Jilong () (; Hokkien POJ: '), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. The city is a part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, along with its neighbors, New Taipe ...

and urged them to enter Taipei to restore order. Koo's close links to the Japanese allowed him both to pursue a successful political career (he became the first Taiwanese to be appointed by the emperor to the House of Peers of Japan, in 1934) and to build a collection of businesses that formed the nucleus of today's Koos Group of companies. Koo had four concubines, eight sons and four daughters. His fifth son, Koo Chen-fu, inherited control of his father's business and served as the negotiator for Taiwan during the Wang–Koo summit. His eighth son, Koo Kwang-ming, became a leader of the

Taiwan Independence Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

movement. His grandson is Richard Koo, an economist specializing in balance sheet recessions.

References

* Hokkien businesspeople Taiwanese businesspeople Taiwanese company founders Taiwanese collaborators with Imperial Japan Taiwanese people of Hoklo descent 1866 births 1937 deaths Koo family of Lukang Members of the House of Peers (Japan) People from Changhua County 20th-century Taiwanese businesspeople 19th-century Taiwanese people Political office-holders in Taiwan 20th-century Taiwanese politicians {{Taiwan-business-bio-stub