Trading and finance
Mitsubishi 三菱
Three diamonds, from a shipping firm
Yatarō Iwasaki, a samurai from Tosa, started a shipping company in Osaka in 1870. It grew into shipbuilding, mining and banking, and became one of the largest business groups in Japan. Today Mitsubishi is a family of separate companies sharing the three-diamond mark.
- Founded
- 1870
- Meiji 3
- Founder
- Yatarō Iwasaki
- Started in
- Osaka
- Status
- Still trading
- Age 156 years
Timeline
-
1870 (Meiji 3)
Iwasaki starts the shipping firm Tsukumo Shōkai in Osaka.
-
1873 (Meiji 6)
The business takes the name Mitsubishi.
-
1884 (Meiji 17)
Leases the Nagasaki shipyard, the start of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
-
1946 (Shōwa 21)
The Mitsubishi zaibatsu is broken up after the war.
-
1954 (Shōwa 29)
Mitsubishi Corporation, the trading company, is re-formed.
Years in brackets are the Japanese era year. Japanese era converter →
Did you know?
The logo combines the three-leaf crest of the Tosa clan with the Iwasaki family's crest of stacked diamonds. "Mitsubishi" means "three diamonds".
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Dates follow the companies' own published histories where available. Trademarks belong to their owners; this page is not affiliated with any company listed.