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Iwasaki Yatarō (born Jan. 9, 1835, Tosa province, Japan—died Feb. 7, 1885, Tokyo) was an industrial entrepreneur who founded the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, the second largest of the family-owned industrial-financial combines that dominated the economic life of Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of petty samurai (warrior class) origin
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Iwasaki was born in relatively humble conditions in what is now the town of Aki in Kochi on the island of Shikoku. The home where he was born and where he grew up is open to the public. He was born in 1835 into a family of farmers that were fairly well-to-do. His family had actually been samurai, but to pay off family debts his great grandfather so...
Iwasaki Yataro's birthplace and childhood home is situated in a residential area at the edge of the fertile Aki River valley. Nowadays there are acres and acres of vinyl greenhouses interspersed among the rice paddies. In front of the property is a large bronze statue of him that was erected to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. It was r...
Iwasaki started his career working for the Yamauchi clan, rulers of the Tosa Domain, who had business interests across Japan. At 19, he went to Edo (now Tokyo) for education but returned home a year later when his father was injured in a dispute.
Iwasaki accused the local magistrate of corruption for refusing to hear his case, and was subsequently sent to prison for seven months after he was kicked out from his village. After his release, Iwasaki was without a permanent job for a time before finding work as a tutor.
At 19, Yataro followed an official of the Tosa clan to Edo (Tokyo) to further his studies. The serious injury of Yataro's father in a dispute with the village headman brought him home from Edo a year later.
Mitsubishi Corporation has a long history of rising to the challenge. Discover more about the origins of our pioneering spirit through these accounts of Mitsubishi's founder Yataro Iwasaki.
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After the Great Kanto Earthquake and during the air raids of World War II, Hisaya provided shelter and meals for displaced people at his Kayacho estate in Tokyo.
