Please see the links below for scholarly articles on the history of zaibatsu before, during, and after World War II. Another useful article is "Deciphering Keiretsu: A Study of Japanese Business Network" by Kohei Takahashi and Song Yang at the University of Arkansas (available online). The zaibatsu, as the authors of this article point out, were feudal in nature and used marriages and family relationships to maintain power. They generally created vertical monopolies, which means they had the ability to control each stage of production in an industrial process, and included a banking unit. The four major zaibatsu were Sumitomo, Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Yasuda. The Sumitomo and Mitsui started in the Edo (1603-1868). Other new zaibatsu developed after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. At the outbreak of World War II, the four major zaibatsu controlled 50% of the machinery production in Japan and 70% of the stock exchange.
During World War II, the Japanese army nationalized a great deal of industrial production, and many other companies were destroyed in the war. After the war, the Allies under the General Headquarters (GHQ) decided to dissolve many of the zaibatsu in 1947. The GHQ's Anti-monopoly Law was intended to separate companies from their affiliated zaibatsu. However, this law was terminated when Allied occupation ended in 1952. The zaibatsu were never totally destroyed, as the United States decided they were useful to bolster Japan's industry as a defense against Communism.
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