ABSTRACT
Since the family-run zaibatsu, such as that of the Mitsui group, which began in the sixteenth century, Japanese companies have been interconnected through cross-shareholdings but through the family. After the Second World War and the American dissolution of the family-operated monopolies, which broke anti-trust law, a new form of large conglomerate emerged. This is the sogo shosha/keiretsu, which is a complex institution that is not family owned and has its own banks and internal financial systems.
