Opportunity vs Control: The Diplomacy of Japanese Shipping in the First World War

Also, large trading firms, including the biggest, Mitsui Bussan, which possessed large fleets primarily to carry their own cargo, were usually lumped within the shagaisen category. In earlier historiography it was common to view the shagaisen as being freer than the shasen to pursue wartime opportunities because they were subject to less government regulation. My argument is somewhat opposite. Wartime regulation was basically an incremental addition to what the shasen already experienced, but it was new to the shagaisen and thus constrained their expansion in the late stages of the war.