Development of the Toyota Industrial Group in prewar and wartime Japan : a comparison with Zaibatsu and "New Konzern"

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  • 戦前・戦時期における豊田業団の形成 : 財閥,新興コンツェルン論を念頭に
  • センゼン ・ センジキ ニ オケル トヨタギョウダン ノ ケイセイ : ザイバツ,シンコウ コンツェルンロン オ ネントウ ニ

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Abstract

This article explores the development of the Toyoda Gyodan (Toyota Industrial Group) in prewar and wartime Japan, focusing on Toyoda Boshoku (Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Company). Toyoda Boshoku entered the heavy industrial sector during the interwar period using the high profits yielded from their textile business as a financial base. The most successful among all their heavy industrial investments at that time were investments in the automobile industry; however, this article shows that they also invested in aircraft manufacturing and chemicals and expanded their overseas business for efficient risk management. During the wartime, Toyoda Boshoku shifted its business resources from textiles to the automobile, aircraft, and armaments industries. In 1942, under the pressure of wartime corporate control measures, Toyoda Gyodan's investments in the textile industry were consolidated in the Chuo Spinning Company; the Chuo Spinning Company then merged with the Toyota Motor Company in 1943, completing the transformation of the Toyoda Gyodan as a heavy industrial corporate group. The Toyoda Gyodan has a number of special characteristics-including its pattern of development, business structure, and family-controlled management structure-which set it apart from both other Zaibatsu and the "New Konzern" (emerging corporate groups). In other words, Toyoda Gyodan should be regarded as a third type of corporate group.

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