are
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese wholesale 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 exploration. Unlike trading companies in other countries, which are generally specialized in certain types of products, ''sōgō shōsha'' have extremely diversified business lines, in which respect the business model is unique to Japan.
The structure of ''sōgō shōsha'' can give them advantages in international trade. First, they have extensive risk management capabilities in that they trade in many markets, keep balances in many foreign currencies and can generate captive supply and demand for their own operations. They also have large-scale in-house market information systems which give them
economies of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of Productivity, output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in ...
in pursuing new business opportunities. Their vast scale also allows them to provide capital in the form of credit, financing and export services at low cost.
Mitsui CEO Masami Iijima described general trading companies as similar to investment funds such as
private equity
Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...
funds, but distinguished by their ability to identify and implement business opportunities in various industries using the information and human resources gleaned from their trading business.
Sōgō shōsha are among the highest-paying employers in Japan. Along with financial institutions, these companies have consistently been ranked among the most popular employers for the graduates of top Japanese universities for over thirty years due to their high compensation levels, employment stability and the diversity of opportunities available to prospective employees, of which has made the recruitment process highly competitive.
Historical background
After the
opening of Japan in the mid-1800s, trade between Japan and the outside world was initially dominated by foreign merchants and traders from Western countries. As Japan modernized, a number of existing family-run conglomerates known as ''
zaibatsu
is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signifi ...
'' (most notably
Mitsubishi
The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries.
Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...
and
Mitsui
is a Japanese corporate group and '' keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. Ins ...
) developed captive trading companies to coordinate production, transportation and financing between the various enterprises within the group. A number of smaller and more specialized Japanese firms, particularly in the cotton supply industry, also took on a larger role in acting as intermediaries for foreign trade, initially in importing raw cotton and later in exporting finished products.
These companies were characterized by handling a variety of products, targeting various regions for their trading, establishing modern institutionalized risk management methods for their trading, and making substantial investments in domestic industrial operations.
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, foreign trade was briefly suspended and the ''zaibatsu'' were dismantled. The powerful trading arms of Mitsui and Mitsubishi were each dissolved into over a hundred smaller businesses.
When trade resumed in 1950, the first diversified trading companies emerged as
Kansai region
The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropol ...
-based textile traders (most notably
Itochu
is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo, Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo.
It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading and investment companies) distinguished by the strength of its textil ...
,
Marubeni
(, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a '' sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Otemachi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as wel ...
,
Toyo Cotton and
Nichimen) and steel traders (most notably Iwai and Nissho, which later merged to form
Nissho Iwai) diversified into new business lines. The remnants of the Mitsubishi and Mitsui ''zaibatsu'' also coalesced in the 1950s to form new large-scale trading concerns.
The term ''sōgō shōsha'' came into use around 1955 to refer to this broad set of firms, which by 1960 had coalesced into ten large and highly diversified companies:
*
Ataka & Co. (collapsed in 1977; iron and steel arm merged with C. Itoh)
*C. Itoh & Co. (now
Itochu
is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo, Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo.
It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading and investment companies) distinguished by the strength of its textil ...
)
*
Kanematsu Corporation (recharacterized as a specialized trading company in 1999)
*
Marubeni
(, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a '' sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Otemachi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as wel ...
*
Mitsubishi Corporation
is a Japanese general trading company ( ''sogo shosha'') and a core member of the Mitsubishi Group. For much of the post-war period, Mitsubishi Corporation has been the largest of the five great ''sogo shosha'' (Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itochu, S ...
*
Mitsui & Co.
*Nichimen (now
Sojitz
is a '' sogo shosha'' (general trading company) based in Tokyo, 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 p ...
)
*Nissho Iwai (now
Sojitz
is a '' sogo shosha'' (general trading company) based in Tokyo, 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 p ...
)
*
Sumitomo Corporation
is one of the largest worldwide '' sōgō shōsha'' general trading companies, and is a diversified corporation. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is a member company of the Sumitomo Group.
It is listed on three Japanese stock exchange ...
*
Toyota Tsusho Corporation
''Sōgō shōsha'' became a core component of the postwar "''
keiretsu
A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings that dominated the Japanese economy in the second half of the 20th century. In the legal sense, it is a type of business group that is in a loosely organized al ...
''" business model, in which large commercial banks played a central role in each major ''keiretsu'' with a ''sōgō shōsha'' playing a secondary central role that diminished over time.
Until the 1980s, ''sōgō shōsha'' operations were largely concentrated on supporting Japanese manufacturers' international transactions, particularly in the textile and chemical industries. Since then, Japanese manufacturers have taken a more direct role in international procurement, sales and marketing, and the ''sōgō shōsha'' have shifted their business focus to services such as finance, insurance, transportation, project management and real estate development, with much of this business conducted outside Japan through local subsidiaries and affiliates.
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 the country's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceler ...
in the early 1990s led to a wave of mergers and reorganizations among ''sōgō shōsha'', reducing their total number to seven.
Parallels in other countries
''Sōgō shōsha'' developed in Japan as a result of several factors unique to Japan.
Japan's geographical remoteness and unique language and culture all served to increase the costs of information and negotiation. Its
closure from the outside world for over 200 years meant that trade had to be developed in a very short period of time relative to Europe, where networks could naturally develop over a longer period of time. Japan also lacked effective capital markets to fund companies, and its industrial base was largely composed of
cottage industry
The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work, like a tailor. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the p ...
enterprises that could not market on their own, in contrast to the larger firms prevalent in the West.
The
chaebol
A chaebol ( , ; , ) is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol often consists of multiple diversified affiliates, controlled by a person or group. Several dozen large South Kore ...
of
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
followed a similar path of developing trading companies in the mid-1970s.
Similar conglomerate type organizations exist in India such as the
Reliance Group
Reliance Group (stylized as ReLIΛNCe) is an Indian conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company, which was formed after Dhirubhai Ambani's business was divided up, is headed by his younger son Anil Ambani.
Reliance Group has ...
and
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate group of companies headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest business conglomerate, with products and services in over 160 countries, and operations in 100 c ...
.
The
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
also attempted to emulate the business model to promote exports in the early 1980s by enacting the Export Trading Company Act of 1982.
At the time the law was debated, Mitsui & Co. was the sixth-largest exporter from the United States, and sogo shosha accounted for about half of Japan's inbound and outbound trade.
See also
*
Oguri Kozukenosuke
*
CoBank
*
References
External links
Explanation of Shosha by Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc.
{{Authority control
Economy of Japan
Trading companies established in the 19th century
*