Talk:Zaibatsu/Archive 1

Archive 1

Keiretsu replaces the term zaibatsu

I think that it would be much more informing if the article's last sentence, "Since World War II, [the term zaibatsu] has been replaced by keiretsu (系列), meaning 'series' or 'subsidiary,'" were replaced by a blurb explaining the transition in terminology, which was by no means an arbitrary one.

The zaibatsu were technically dissolved by reformers during the Allied occupation of Japan. Their controlling families' assests seized; holding companies, the previous 'heads' of the zaibatsu conglomorates, eliminated; and interlocking directorships, essential to the old system of inter-company coordination, were outlawed. Even so, complete dissolution of the zaibatsu was never achieved by Allied reformers/SCAP, in part because the Zeitgeist of the time supported such conglomorates; they were widely considered beneficial. The opinions of the Japanese public, zaibatsu workers and management, and the entrenched bureaucraucy regarding plans for zaibtsu break-up ranged from unenthusiastic to dissaproving. Additionally, the changing politics of the Occupation during the reverse course served as a crippling, if not terminal roadblock to intentions of zaibatsu elimination. The keiretsu remained fundamentally correlative to the old zaibatsu, but the old "mechanisms of financial and administrative control" were destroyed (Allinson 75). Despite the abscense of an actualized sweeping change to the existence of large, industrial conglomerates in Japan, the zaibatsu's previous vertical chain of command, ending with a single family, was displaced by the horizontal relationships of association and coordination now characteristc of the keiretsu -- an important difference. The Japanese term, keiretsu (系列), could be interpreted as being suggestive of this difference.

Please check out Gary D. Allinson's "Japan's Postwar History" (ISBN 0-8014-3312-6) for a nice, informative, light read on, well, Japan's Postwar history.

66.169.229.66 (talk) 06:39, 12 February 2004 (UTC)

Bankrupt zaibatsu

"Suzuki" is listed as a bankrupt zaibatsu, but it's linked to the article "Sojitz", where Suzuki isn't even mentioned. Can anyone explain, please? 84.190.214.185 06:26, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Zaibatsu means "Tycoon"

Not property. 財 means wealth, valuables, or riches and 閥 means a powerful and influential group. 199.117.69.8 (talk) 19:42, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Lists of miscellaneous information do not belong

I saw this notice in the section on Zaibatsu in Popular Culture, and I would suggest that this section is not a list of miscellaneous information. Have a look at the contents of the section, it seems sufficiently coherent and informative to me that I would as a reader prefer the existence of this section over the integration of its contents into a selection of other categories. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.158.232.154 (talk) 18:12, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Graph

I wonder if I can use Wikipedia:EasyTimeline to make bar chart? thus compare some Zaibatsu's total assets with some medium-size-country's GDP. That must be interesting. --Kerry7374 (talk) 16:13, 29 March 2010 (UTC)