is a ''

sogo shosha 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) based in

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, ...

, Japan. It is engaged in a wide range of businesses globally, including buying, selling, importing, and exporting goods, manufacturing and selling products, providing services, and planning and coordinating

projects A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

, in Japan and overseas. Sojitz also

invests Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing is ...

in various sectors and conducts financing activities. The broad range of sectors in which Sojitz operates includes automobiles,

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

resources,

chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

, foodstuff resources, agricultural and forestry resources, consumer goods, and

industrial parks An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

. Sojitz was formed in 2004 by the merger of and . The name "Sojitz" is derived from the names of Nissho Iwai and Nichimen, both of which include the character " 日" (sun). "Sojitz", literally meaning "twin suns", implies a merger of equals between the two companies. The corporate logo is a stylized version of the first character in its Japanese name.

History

Nichimen

Beginning around 1878, the Japanese government promoted the development of

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

spinning as an initial means of developing modern industry in Japan in the wake of the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

. Japan's native raw cotton supply proved inadequate to meet demand, and there was only one Japanese importer of raw cotton at the time, making the industry highly reliant on foreign merchants. To improve this situation, a group of spinning companies established in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

in 1892 under the leadership of Tsuneki Sano, a 38-year-old former government official. After the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

, Nichimen expanded its business from importing. The company began cotton spinning operations in the Kwantung Leased Territory and established offices in China, Korea, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom to supply local markets. In 1910, Nichimen opened a subsidiary in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

to enter the raw cotton trade in the United States.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

strained cotton supply in Europe, boosting Nichimen's international business further. In the late 1910s the company expanded into South America and Africa, trading in cotton as well as wool, food products, and machinery. The Great Depression harmed Nichimen's cotton business, spurring the company's diversification beyond cotton to trade in silk, rayon and other materials. 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 opposing ...

, Nichimen was tapped by the Japanese military to manage production of flour, matches and starch. The company changed its name to Nichimen Enterprise (Nichimen Jitsugyo) in 1943 to reflect its more diverse business. The largest ''

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 ...

'' trading companies were dismantled after the war, giving Nichimen an early lead among the ''

'' in the 1950s and a six percent share of Japanese foreign trade by 1958. Nichimen became closely affiliated with Osaka-based

Sanwa Bank was a major Japanese bank headquartered in Osaka, which operated from 1933 to 2002. It merged with Tokai Bank to form UFJ Bank (now part of MUFG Bank). In the 1990s, it was the most profitable bank in the world, and second-largest in terms of ass ...

in 1955, which financed all of Nichimen's domestic business. Nichimen was not the main trading company for the Sanwa '' keiretsu'' as that position was already held by Iwai & Co. Nichimen Jitsugyo. By 1970, Nichimen was trading in steel, electronics, motor vehicles and fibers in addition to textiles. Nichimen served as the joint venture partner for

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. Nabisco's ...

when it began operations in Japan in the 1970s. Nichimen Co., Ltd. changed its name to Nichimen Corporation in 1982. Nichimen, like other ''sogo shosha'', was hit hard by the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s, and subsequently made a strategic shift from the "soft" businesses of lumber, food, and chemicals trading to the "hard" businesses of machinery, steel, and construction.

Nissho Iwai

Nissho Iwai was formed in 1968 by the merger of Nissho Company and Iwai Sangyo Company. Nissho Company was founded in Kobe in 1902 as Suzuki & Company( :ja:鈴木商店) under the leadership of Naokichi Kaneko( :ja:金子直吉) when died this company's predecessor shop's founder, Iwajiro Suzuki( :ja:鈴木岩治郎)(1837-1894). Suzuki was originally a sugar trading firm but later diversified into flour, steel, tobacco, beer, insurance, shipping and shipbuilding; it became the second Japanese member of the

Baltic Exchange The Baltic Exchange (incorporated as The Baltic Exchange Limited) is a membership organisation for the maritime industry, and freight market information provider for the trading and settlement of physical and derivative contracts. It was locate ...

in London. Iwai & Company( :ja:岩井商店) was founded as a steel trading firm in 1901 and established a number of prominent group enterprises including

Daicel is a chemical company based in Japan. It operates business in celluloid technologies, organic chemicals, high-performance chemicals, polymers and pyrotechnic devices. The company's products include cellulose acetate, tow for cigarette filters, ...

, Nisshin Steel, Tokuyama Soda,

Kansai Paint is a Japanese, Osaka-based chemical company whose main products are automotive, industrial and decorative coatings. The company is one of the world's top ten paint manufacturers with manufacturing sites in over 43 countries across the world. K ...

and Fuji Photo Film. It changed its name to Iwai Sangyo Company in 1943. Both Nissho and Iwai emerged as metals and machinery trading companies after World War II but were significantly smaller than the four largest ''sogo shosha'' competitors (

Mitsubishi Corporation is Japan's largest trading company (sogo shosha) and a member of the Mitsubishi keiretsu. As of 2022, Mitsubishi Corporation employs over 80,000 people and has ten business segments, including finance, banking, energy, machinery, chemical ...

, Mitsui & 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 ...

and Marubeni). Iwai was poorly managed after the war and was on the brink of failure in the early 1960s, while Nissho was profitable and successfully expanding overseas. The Japanese government directed the merger of the two companies in 1968, forming the fifth largest trading company in Japan (falling back to sixth place in 1972 behind Sumitomo Corporation).

played a role in the merger and the combined firm became the trading arm of the

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 ...

'' keiretsu''. Nissho Iwai was involved in a corruption scandal in 1979 after it passed on a 500 million yen bribe from

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it pro ...

to the director general of the Japan Defense Agency in an attempt to influence the sale of

F-4 Phantom The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bo ...

aircraft to the

Japan Air Self-Defense Force The , , also informally referred to as the Japanese Air Force, is the air and space branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace, other air and space operations, cyberwarfare and electronic warf ...

. In the wake of the scandal, one Nissho Iwai executive committed suicide by jumping from the company's headquarters building. The scandal was uncovered only three years after a similar scandal involving Lockheed and Marubeni conspiring to bribe 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 subsequent years, the company had a strong focus on

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the vol ...

and steel trading, as well as industrial project development.

Merger

Nichimen and Nissho Iwai consolidated on a holding company level in 2003 and consolidated their operating units in 2004, adopting the Sojitz name at that time. The merged holding company, Sojitz Holdings, combined with the merged operating company, Sojitz Corporation, in 2005.

Current operations

Today, the Sojitz Group consists of approximately 440 subsidiaries and

affiliates In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or ...

located in Japan and throughout the world, and it is developing its wide-ranging general trading company operations in roughly 50 countries and regions across the globe. Sojitz (through its subsidiary ''Sojitz Aerospace Company'') is the largest seller of commercial aircraft in Japan, as it acts as a sales agent for both

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

and

Bombardier Aerospace Bombardier Aviation is a division of Bombardier Inc. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. Its most popular aircraft included the Dash 8 Series 400, CRJ100/200/440, and CRJ700/900/1000 lines of regional airliners, and the newer CS ...

. It distributes

Mitsubishi Motors is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.Hyundai Motors automobiles in various countries, and also develops and operates power plants, industrial plants in various countries. In 2013 it received an order to develop a section of the

Western Dedicated Freight Corridor The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor or Western DFC is a 1,506 km long, under-construction broad gauge freight corridor in India. It will connect Dadri in Uttar Pradesh (near Delhi) with Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. ...

between

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

in India. The Sojitz Aerospace Company also acts as Sojitz's primary arm for defense related business. Sojitz has also invested in Hyundai Nishat, the Pakistani arm of Hyundai Motors in partnership with Nishat Group. Sojitz owns oil and natural gas concessions in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It owns the Gregory coal mine and most of the Minerva Coal Mine in Australia and distributes nuclear fuel in Japan for

Orano Orano SA is a multinational nuclear fuel cycle company headquartered in Châtillon, Hauts-de-Seine, France. The company is engaged in uranium mining, conversion-enrichment, spent fuel recycling, nuclear logistics, dismantling, and nuclear cy ...

. Its operations in the chemicals sector include methanol production in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, barite mining in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and industrial salt trading in various markets worldwide. In November 2010, it signed an agreement with the Australian

rare earths The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides (yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silve ...

mining company

Lynas Lynas Rare Earths, Ltd. is an Australian rare-earths mining company, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange as a S&P/ASX 200 company. It has two major operations: a mining and concentration plant at Mount Weld, Western Australia, ...

to import $350 million worth of rare earth minerals from Lynas' mine in

Mount Weld Mount Weld mine is a rare earth mine in Western Australia, located about south of Laverton and east of Leonora. It ranks as one of the richest major rare-earth deposits in the world. Rare earths are contained in secondary phosphates and a ...

, Australia. Its consumer business operations include trading in grains, feed, sugar, coffee, fish, wood and paper. It owns the Japanese rights to several consumer brands such as

Eastpak Eastpak is an American worldwide lifestyle brand founded in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in the design, development, manufacturing and worldwide marketing and distribution of a range of products including bags, backpacks, travel gear and a ...

and McGregor.

ADV Films acquisition

In June 2006, Sojitz acquired a 20% stake in American anime distributor ADV Films. This was done as a means of acquiring more titles in the Japanese market. From this point on, virtually all titles that ADV acquired were under Sojitz's ownership. However, in January 2008, ADV mysteriously removed a large number of titles from their website. All the titles removed were titles acquired since the Sojitz acquisition including ''

Gurren Lagann ''Gurren Lagann'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese mecha anime television series animated by Gainax and co-produced by Aniplex and Konami. It ran for 27 episodes on TV Tokyo between April and September 2007. It was directed by Hiroyu ...

'', which had test disks sent out with dubbed episodes. As of May 2008, ''

'' was licensed by

Bandai Entertainment was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and f ...

. ADV Films made booth appearances at the Anime Central 2008 convention, but they canceled their planned panel. In July 2008,

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

announced the acquisition of thirty of these titles. The titles removed from ADV's website are as follows: '' 009-1'', ''

5 Centimeters per Second is a 2007 Japanese romantic drama animated film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. It theatrically premiered on 3 March 2007. The film consists of three segments, each following a period in the protagonist Takaki Tōno's life and his ...

'', '' Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy'', both the film and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

adaptions of the Key visual novel ''

Air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

'', ''

Best Student Council is a Japanese anime television series conceived by Konami and animated by J.C.Staff which originally aired on TV Tokyo from April to September 2005. A PS2 dating sim game of the same name based on the anime was also made by Konami. The No ...

'', ''

Blade of the Phantom Master /() is a South Korean-Japanese manhwa series created by Youn In-wan and illustrated by Yang Kyung-il. The story takes place in a world reminiscent of ancient Korea, and follows the Korean-folktale-inspired adventures of Munsu, one of the few ...

'', '' Comic Party Revolution'', ''

Coyote Ragtime Show is a Japanese anime television series directed by Takuya Nonaka and produced by ufotable, which first aired in Japan on July 3, 2006. The storyline consists of the adventures of a group of space-faring fugitives in search of a treasure. ADV ...

'', ''

Devil May Cry is a series of action-adventure games created by Hideki Kamiya. It is primarily developed and published by Capcom. The series centers on the demon hunter Dante and his efforts to thwart various demon invasions of Earth. Its gameplay consists o ...

'', the 2006 live-action horror film ''

Ghost Train In ghostlore, a ghost train is a phantom vehicle in the form of a locomotive or train. The ghost train differs from other traditional forms of haunting in that rather than being a static location where ghosts are claimed to be present, "the appar ...

'', '' Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor'', ''

Innocent Venus is a Japanese anime television series which began broadcasting on the Wowow network in Japan on July 26, 2006 at midnight. The series makes use of some 3D cel-shaded animation, which achieves a more "hand drawn" look than traditional 3D ani ...

'', '' Jing King of Bandits: 7th Heaven'', '' Jinki: Extend'', the 2006 anime remake of yet another Key visual novel, '' Kanon'', '' Kurau: Phantom Memory'', ''

Le Chevalier D'Eon is a Japanese anime television series produced by Production I.G based on an original story by Tow Ubukata. The anime originally aired in Japan on WOWOW from August 19, 2006, to February 2, 2007. The story has also been adapted into a man ...

'', ''

Magikano is a Japanese manga series by Takeaki Momose, which was later adapted into an anime series, directed by Seiji Kishi and written by Hideki Mitsui. The anime series was also broadcast by Animax, who adapted and dubbed the series into English f ...

'', ''

Moeyo Ken is a novel by Japanese author Ryōtarō Shiba. It dramatizes the life of Hijikata Toshizō, a member of the Shinsengumi, active in Japan during the ''bakumatsu'' (the end of the Tokugawa shogunate). The novel was initially serialized from 1962 ...

'', '' Moonlight Mile'', '' Nerima Daikon Brothers'', '' Pani Poni Dash!'', '' Project Blue Earth SOS'', ''

Pumpkin Scissors is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ryotaro Iwanaga. Originally serialized in ''Magazine GREAT'' in 2002 it was later moved to ''Monthly Shonen Magazine'' in October 2006. The manga has been licensed by Del Rey. An anime ad ...

'', ''

Red Garden ''Red Garden'' (stylized as ''RED GARDEN'') is a Japanese anime television series produced by Gonzo which premiered in Japan on TV Asahi on October 3, 2006. The plot revolves around four girls who become involved in a series of supernatural mu ...

'', ''

Tokyo Majin ''Tokyo Majin'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese anime series, which premiered in Japan on the anime satellite TV network Animax. A large part of Tokyo Majin Gakuen, it is loosely based on a series of Japan-only video games, and is directed ...

'', ''

UFO Princess Valkyrie is a Japanese manga series created by Kaishaku. The series was adapted into a 32-episode anime series and one specially released OVA episode by TNK. Seasons 1 and 2 were broadcast in Japan on Kids Station between 2002 and 2004. The anime ...

'', the first anime of ''

Utawarerumono is a Japanese Eroge, adult Tactical role-playing game, tactical role-playing visual novel developed by Leaf (company), Leaf, which released in April 2002 for Microsoft Windows. It was Porting, ported to the PlayStation 2, PlaySta ...

'', '' Venus vs. Virus'', '' The Wallflower'', ''

Welcome to the NHK is a Japanese novel written by Tatsuhiko Takimoto. It was published by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan in January 2002, and in English by Tokyopop in October 2007. The story revolves around a 22-year-old ''hikikomori'', an asocial recluse, who gets ...

'', and ''

Xenosaga ''Xenosaga'' is a role-playing video game series developed by Monolith Soft and primarily published by Namco. Forming part of the wider '' Xeno'' metaseries, ''Xenosaga'' is set in a science fiction universe and follows a group of characters as t ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Conglomerate companies based in Tokyo Conglomerate companies established in 2004 Defense companies of Japan Furukawa Group Japanese companies established in 2004 Midori-kai Trading companies based in Tokyo