Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (head office)

was a major Japanese bank that served as the main bank for the

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

conglomerate/''

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 ...

''. It merged with

The Bank of Tokyo was a Japanese foreign exchange bank that operated from 1946 to 1996. In January 1996, it merged with Mitsubishi Bank to form The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (now MUFG Bank). Its headquarters was in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo, adjacent to the ...

in 1996 to form The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (now

MUFG Bank is the largest bank in Japan. It was established on January 1, 2006, following the merger of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. and UFJ Bank Ltd. MUFG is one of the three so-called Japanese "megabanks" (along with SMBC and Mizuho). As such, ...

). The bank's operations date to 1880, when Mitsubishi group founder Yataro Iwasaki established the in Tokyo. Mitsubishi acquired the business of the Tokyo, Oita and Hakodate-based 119th National Bank in 1885, and spun this business off to an independent Mitsubishi Bank in 1919. The bank opened branches in London and New York in 1920. During World War II, it was a financier of Japanese interests in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

through its branch in

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...

, opened in 1933. In 1948, the Mitsubishi conglomerate was dismantled and the bank was renamed after the district of the same name in Tokyo. The bank reverted to the Mitsubishi name in 1953 and re-opened its London and New York offices. It became a major financier of the regrouped Mitsubishi ''keiretsu'' in the following years. Mitsubishi and

Dai-Ichi Bank (第一) is a compound modifier phrase of Japanese origin, meaning ''number one'', or ''first''. In kanji, "dai" ("number") is 第Nakao, Seigo''Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary'' via Google Books, p. 39. Retrieved 2011-0 ...

, Japan's oldest bank, began preparations for a merger in 1969, which would have led to a major regrouping in the bank-led ''keiretsu'' system of the era. The plan met opposition among Dai-Ichi's management and its customers in the Furukawa and Kawasaki groups, who feared that Mitsubishi would dominate the combined bank and that their businesses would be absorbed by the relatively strong Mitsubishi group. As a result, the merger was called off. Two years later, Dai-Ichi merged with Nippon Kangyo Bank to form

Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank , abbreviated as , was one of the largest banks in the world during the latter half of the 20th century. Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank was created in 1971 by a consortium of two banks: Dai-Ichi Bank, Japan's oldest bank, and Nippon Kangyo Bank, a state fin ...

(now part of

Mizuho Bank is the integrated retail and corporate banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group (; ), the third largest financial services company in Japan, with total assets of approximately $1.8 trillion in 2017. Mizuho is one of the three so-called Japanese ...

). Mitsubishi was known as a very conservative lender and was one of the few Japanese banks to emerge from 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 ...

relatively unscathed. It acquired the Nippon Trust Bank in 1994. In 1996, it combined with

to form The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (now

). In addition to its home country of Japan, Mitsubishi was also active in California, where it began banking operations in 1972 through Mitsubishi Bank of California. Mitsubishi acquired

Bank of California The Bank of California was opened in San Francisco, California, on July 4, 1864, by William Chapman Ralston and Darius Ogden Mills. It was the first commercial bank in the Western United States, the second-richest bank in the nation, and considered ...

in 1984, which later merged with Bank of Tokyo-controlled Union Bank to form what is now known as

MUFG Union Bank MUFG Union Bank (stylized as UnionBank), is a nationally chartered full-service bank with 398 branches in California, Washington and Oregon which was wholly owned by MUFG Americas Holdings and has been acquired by U.S. Bancorp. Formerly known ...

Notable alumni

* Zentaro Kosaka, politician and Japanese foreign minister *

Makoto Usami was a Japanese businessman, central banker, the 21st Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ). Early life Usami was born in Yamagata Prefecture, Yamagata. Career Usami was Governor of the Bank of Japan from December 17, 1964 to December 16, 1969 ...

, Bank of Japan president

References

{{Authority control Defunct banks of Japan Mitsubishi companies Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Financial services companies based in Tokyo Japanese companies established in 1919 Banks established in 1919 Banks disestablished in 1996 Companies formerly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Japanese companies disestablished in 1996