(, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a ''

sōgō shōsha are Japanese companies that trade in a wide range of products and materials. In addition to acting as intermediaries, ''sōgō shōsha'' also engage in logistics, plant development and other services, as well as international resource explorat ...

'' (general trading company) headquartered in

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current ...

, Chuo,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as well as a strong electrical and industrial plant business. Marubeni is a member of the

Mizuho Mizuho () literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. It was also an ancient name of Japan. It might refer to: Places * Mizuho, Gifu, a city in Gifu * Mizuho, Tokyo, a town in Tokyo * Mizuho Plateau in A ...

keiretsu A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. In the legal sense, it is a type of informal business group that are loosely organized alliances within the social world of Japan's business community. The ''ke ...

History

Marubeni was founded in 1858, where the founder Chubei Itoh moved out of the family business and started a linen trading business with his uncle. It was established in 1918 as Itochu Shoten, Ltd. in a spin-off of certain sales divisions of C. Itoh & Co. (

Itochu is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descend ...

) into a separate entity. Itochu Shoten merged with Itoh Chobei Shoten in 1921 to form Marubeni Shoten, Ltd. under the leadership of Chobei Itoh IX. Marubeni started out as a textile trading firm and expanded to trade in other consumer and industrial goods during the 1920s. Marubeni was re-combined with Itochu during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to form Sanko Kabushiki Kaisha Ltd. (1941–44) and Daiken Company, Ltd. (1944–48). This conglomerate was dismantled in the wake of the war and Marubeni again emerged as a separate trading company in 1949. Post-war Marubeni was predominantly a textile trading firm at its outset, but diversified into machinery, metals and chemicals, with textiles barely forming a majority of its business by the end of the decade. Marubeni merged with Takashimaya-Iida, a trading company that owned the

Takashimaya is a Japanese multinational corporation operating a department store chain carrying a wide array of products, ranging from wedding dresses and other apparel to electronics and flatware. It has more than 12 branches strategically located in 2 ...

department store chain, in 1955, changing its name to Marubeni-Iida from 1955 to 1972. The merger was orchestrated by

Fuji Bank The was one of Japan's major banks during the post–World War II era. It combined with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan in 2000 to form Mizuho Financial Group, and changed its name to Mizuho Corporate Bank in 2002 after t ...

in order to create a stronger trading company partner for the bank's corporate customers. Marubeni and Fuji Bank developed a network of corporate clients which was formalized as the

Fuyo Group is a Japanese ''keiretsu'' descended from the Yasuda zaibatsu, Asano zaibatsu and Okura zaibatsu. They are major business grouping in Japan up to World War II. In 1948, Yasuda was dismantled, with its key financial arm Yasuda Bank becoming Fuj ...

'' in the 1960s, paralleling the development of the

DKB Group The or the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Group was the largest Japanese keiretsu in the late 1990s. The group emerged after World War II and coalesced around the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. Two of DKB's largest clients, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Furukawa Electri ...

and

Sanwa Group The was a leading Japanese keiretsu, based in Osaka, between World War II and the Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s. It remains in existence as a jointly held company called . Sanwa Bank was a major financier for the textile indust ...

. The Fuyo Group included

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Showa Denko , founded in 1939 by the merger of Nihon Electrical Industries and Showa Fertilizers, both established by a Japanese entrepreneur Nobuteru Mori, is a Japanese chemical company producing chemical products and industrial materials. SDK's products ...

Kubota Kubota machine is a Japanese multinational corporation based in Osaka. It was established in 1890. The corporation produces many products including tractors and other agricultural machinery, construction equipment, engines, vending machines, p ...

and

Nippon Steel was formed in 2012 by the merger of the old Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal. was established in 1970 by the merger of Fuji Iron & Steel and Yawata Iron & Steel. Nippon Steel is the world's third largest steel producer by volume as of 2019. ...

. Marubeni, like other ''sogo shosha'', was hit hard by the collapse of the

Japanese asset price bubble The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and Japan's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceleration ...

in the early 1990s and recorded its first annual net loss in 1998. The company again booked massive losses as part of a restructuring in 2001, with its stock price plummeting to 58 yen per share in December 2001. Marubeni acquired a large minority stake in the

Daiei , based in Kobe, Hyōgo, Kobe, is one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan. In 1957, Isao Nakauchi founded the chain in Osaka near Sembayashi Station on the Keihan train line. Daiei is now under a restructuring process supported by Maruben ...

supermarket chain in 2006, which it sold to

Æon Group is a group of retail and financial services companies based in Chiba, Japan, which is centered on ÆON Co., Ltd. It has sister companies in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. The group also trades ...

in 2013. The

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed co ...

recognized Marubeni as the best Japanese company at increasing

enterprise value Enterprise value (EV), total enterprise value (TEV), or firm value (FV) is an economic measure reflecting the market value of a business (i.e. as distinct from market price). It is a sum of claims by all claimants: creditors (secured and unsecured) ...

in 2013, citing management's efforts to maximize

return on equity The return on equity (ROE) is a measure of the profitability of a business in relation to the equity. Because shareholder's equity can be calculated by taking all assets and subtracting all liabilities, ROE can also be thought of as a return on ''a ...

. In September 2018, The

Russian Direct Investment Fund The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is Russia's sovereign wealth fund established in 2011 by the Russian government to make investments in companies of high-growth sectors of the Russian economy. Its mandate is to co-invest alongside the wo ...

(RDIF), Marubeni Corporation and Russia's AEON Corporation agreed to develop an industrial facility in

Volgograd Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

. The total investment is estimated at over $800 million with construction due to start in 2020. In September 2018, Marubeni announced to shift from coal to renewable energy resources.

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...

acquired over 5% of the stock in the company, along with four other Japanese trading houses, over the 12-month period ending in August 2020. In October 2021, Marubeni invested in B2U Storage Solutions, a Santa Monica-based startup which reuses EV batteries to a battery storage system. In January 2022, Marubeni has won the sea bed right of the Scotland to construct an off shore wind farm. They have partnered with SSE Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. Aside of Scotland, Marubeni is working on Japan’s first off shore wind farm as well as floating turbine demonstrations.

Offices

Marubeni's head office moved to the

Tokyo Nihombashi Tower Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

( ja) in 2016. The company constructed a new dedicated head office building in 2021 and moved back to the original place in Chiyoda. The company has a total of twelve offices in Japan, 58 overseas offices and 29 overseas subsidiaries with 33 offices.

Business

Marubeni Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries use their broad business networks, both within Japan and overseas, to conduct importing and exporting (including third country trading), as well as domestic business, encompassing a diverse range of business activities across wide-ranging fields including lifestyle, ICT & real estate business, forest products, food, agri business, chemicals, energy, metals & mineral resources, power business, infrastructure project, aerospace & ship, finance & leasing business, construction, industrial machinery & mobility, and next generation business development. Additionally, the Marubeni Group offers a variety of services, makes internal and external investments, and is involved in resource development throughout all of the above industries. Marubeni's business is organized in six groups(as of March 2022): *Consumer Products Group – Lifestyle, ICT & Real Estate, Forest Products. Trades in apparel, functional materials and rubber, and provides logistics, insurance, finance, real estate services, pulp and paper. Has a strategic partnership with

Want Want China Want Want China Holdings Ltd. is a subsidiary of Want Want Holdings Limited (Want Want; Chinese: 旺旺集團有限公司; pinyin: Wàngwàng Jítuán Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī). It is one of the largest rice cracker and flavored drink manufacturer in ...

. *Food, Argiculture & Chemicals Group – Food, Agri Business, Chemicals. Trades in grain and food products, distributes solar panels and energy storage units. One major unit is the Helena Chemical Company, the second-largest agricultural chemical distributor in the US, which Marubeni acquired from

Bayer Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...

in 1987. *Energy & Metals Group - Trades in oil, gas, nuclear fuel, iron, steel, and other metals and minerals. *Power Business & Infrastructure Group - Develops power plants, environmental plants, marine projects, industrial plants and transport infrastructure. Projects include the

Westermost Rough Wind Farm Westermost Rough Wind Farm is an offshore wind farm north east of Withernsea off the Holderness coast, in the North Sea, England. The farm covers an area of approximately with a generation capacity of approximately 210 MW. It became oper ...

in the UK,

FSRU Regasification is a process of converting liquefied natural gas (LNG) at −162 °C (−260 °F) temperature back to natural gas at atmospheric temperature. LNG gasification plants can be located on land as well as on floating barges, i.e. a Float ...

and

FPSO A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive h ...

projects in South America, and operation of the G:link light rail in Australia. *Transportation & Industrial Machinery, Financial Business Group - Trades in aircraft (

Aircastle Aircastle Limited is an aircraft leasing company that acquires, leases and sells commercial jet aircraft to airlines around the world. It has its headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, with offices in Dublin and Singapore. Aircastle was incorpora ...

), ships, automobiles, and construction and industrial machinery. Th
Marubeni Aerospace Corporation
is a major component of this group, making up part of the group's
Aerospace & Ship Division
'. MAC was formed in 1998 when Marubeni acquired the trading rights and other assets of the former aerospace division of ''Okura & Co., Ltd''. (Okura Aerospace Co., Ltd.) In 2000, Marubeni obtained UK based Automotive dealer group, the RRG Group.

Notable people

Minoru Arakawa is a Japanese businessman best known as the founder and former president of Nintendo of America, and the co-founder of Tetris Online, Inc. Biography Minoru Arakawa was born on 3 September 1946 in Kyoto, Japan, the second son of Waichiro Arakaw ...

worked in overseas real estate development at Marubeni during the 1970s prior to founding

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. ...

in 1980. * Yohei Kono, member of the House of Representatives and former Foreign Minister, worked at Marubeni from 1959 to 1967 before entering politics. *

Toshimitsu Motegi is a Japanese politician and diplomat who currently serves as the Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party. He has previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2021, and as Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry fr ...

, member of the House of Representatives and former State Minister and minister of foreign affairs in the

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

and

Yoshihide Suga is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2020 to 2021. He had served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fro ...

governments, worked at Marubeni before entering politics.

Scandals and Incidents

In the early 1970s Marubeni was accused of hoarding rice on the black market for profiteering purposes. In 1976, numerous Marubeni and

All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had mo ...

executives were arrested in connection with the bribery of Japanese government officials to support the sales of Lockheed aircraft in Japan; the scandal also led to several suicides and the arrest of Prime Minister

Kakuei Tanaka was a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1990, and was Prime Minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. After a power struggle with Takeo Fukuda, he became the most influential member of the ruling Liberal ...

. In 1986, Marubeni was found to have bribed Filipino President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

and several of his friends and associates in connection with Japanese ODA work in the Philippines. In January 2012, Marubeni Corporation agreed to pay a US$54.6 million criminal penalty to settle multiple US

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law that prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. The FCPA is applicable world ...

(FCPA) charges relating to its work as an agent for the TSKJ joint venture. The TSKJ joint venture comprising

Technip Technip S.A. was a company that carried out project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry; in 2017 it completed a merger with FMC Technologies to form TechnipFMC. Its headquarters were in the 16th arrondissement of ...

, Snamprogetti Netherlands, Kellogg Brown & Root ( KBR) and JGC Corporation hired Marubeni to bribe lower-level

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n government officials to help it achieve contracts to build LNG facilities on

Bonny Island Bonny Island is situated at the southern edge of Rivers State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It is near Port Harcourt. Ferries are the main form of transport to and from the island. The local language spoken on Bonny Island is Ibani, ...

. TSKJ paid Marubeni US$51 million which was intended, in part, to be used toward Nigerian officials. Two years later, and just months after its final settlement in the Nigerian case, Marubeni was charged under the FCPA for bribing Indonesian officials in order to secure a $118 million power project contract for a joint venture between Marubeni and

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

; it agreed to pay an $88 million fine in connection with this case.

References

External links

www.marubeni.com
*
Marubeni Europe plcMarubeni Power
{{Authority control Conglomerate companies based in Tokyo Distribution companies based in Tokyo Service companies based in Tokyo Aircraft engine manufacturers of Japan Defense companies of Japan Trading companies based in Tokyo Manufacturing companies established in 1918 Japanese companies established in 1918 Companies listed on the Osaka Exchange Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Fuyo Group