keiretsu . mitsubishi corporation headquarters the marunouchi park building in marunouchi chiyoda tokyo . native name romanized name mitsubishi sh ji kabushiki gaisha formerly called kowa jitsugyo kaisha mitsubishi shoji type public company traded as tyo 8058 lse mbc industry general trading company founded incorporated in 1918 refounded in 1954 headquarters marunouchi chiyoda tokyo japan number of locations 222 area served worldwide key people yorihiko kojima chairman ken kobayashi president & ceo services financial services machinery chemicals construction energy metal food consumer goods revenue 19 233 443 million 2011 1 operating income 316 141 million 2011 1 net income 463 188 million 2011 1 total assets 11 347 442 million 2011 1 total equity 3 600 990 million 2011 1 subsidiaries lawson 32 % website www.mitsubishicorp.com mitsubishi corporation mitsubishi sh ji kabushiki gaisha is japan s largest trading company sogo shosha and a member of the mitsubishi keiretsu . mitsubishi corporation employs over 60 000 people and has seven business segments including finance banking energy machinery chemicals and food . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 awards 4 environmental record 5 external links 6 references history edit the company traces its roots to the mitsubishi conglomerate founded by yataro iwasaki . iwasaki was originally employed by the tosa clan of modern day k chi prefecture who posted him to nagasaki in the 1860s . during this time iwasaki became close to sakamoto ry ma a major figure in the meiji restoration that ended the tokugawa shogunate and restored the primacy of the emperor of japan in 1867 . iwasaki was placed in charge of the tosa clan s trading operation tsukumo shokai based in osaka . this company changed its name in the following years to mitsukawa shokai and then to mitsubishi shokai . around 1871 the company was renamed mitsubishi steamship company and began a mail service between yokohama and shanghai with government sponsorship . 2 under iwasaki s leadership in the late 1800s mitsubishi diversified its business into insurance tokio marine insurance company and meiji life insurance company mining takashima coal mine and shipbuilding . 2 following his death in 1885 his successor yanosuke iwasaki merged the shipping operation with a rival enterprise to form the nippon yusen kaisha nyk and refocused mitsubishi s business on coal and copper mining . in 1918 the group s international trading business was spun off to form mitsubishi shoji kaisha . 3 mitsubishi goshi kaisha served as the parent company of the group through world war ii during which group company mitsubishi heavy industries launched in 1934 produced ships aircraft and heavy machinery for the war effort . 4 after the war the administration of douglas macarthur called for the dissolution of the zaibatsu corporations that dominated the japanese economy . mitsubishi was the only major zaibatsu to initially refuse this request at the orders of president kotaya iwasaki who shortly thereafter fell seriously ill . 4 mitsubishi eventually dissolved in 1947 and under restrictive rules imposed by the occupation authorities the employees of the mitsubishi shoji trading arm rebanded into 100 separate companies . beginning in 1950 the restrictions on re consolidation of the zaibatsu were eased and by 1952 most of the former mitsubishi shoji had coalesced into three companies . 5 the current mitsubishi corporation was founded by the merger of these three companies to form mitsubishi shoji in 1954 ; mitsubishi listed on the tokyo stock exchange and osaka stock exchange in the same year . it changed its name to mitsubishi corporation in 1971 . 6 concurrently with its relaunch mitsubishi opened fourteen liaison offices outside japan as well as a us subsidiary called mitsubishi international corporation with offices in new york and san francisco . by 1960 mitsubishi had fifty one overseas offices . 7 mitsubishi s first large scale investment outside japan was a liquefied natural gas project in brunei committed to in 1968 . 6 along with mitsubishi bank mitsubishi corporation played a central role in international trading for other constituents of the former mitsubishi zaibatsu during the postwar era such as mitsubishi heavy industries and the mitsubishi motor company forming a major keiretsu business group centered around the second friday conference kinyo kai of company managers . 8 mitsubishi was the largest japanese general trading company from the late 1960s until the mid 1980s ; after falling to fifth place in 1986 it embarked on a series of large overseas acquisitions together with other companies in the mitsubishi group . 8 by 2015 mitsubishi was again the top ranked general trading company by net earnings . however mitsubishi saw its first postwar net loss in the fiscal year ended march 2016 amid a slowdown in the chinese economy and a slump in the commodity markets causing mitsubishi to lose its 1 position to itochu . 9 operations edit mitsubishi corporation has its head office in marunouchi chiyoda tokyo . 10 the head office is located in two buildings in marunouchi mitsubishi shoji building mitsubishi sh ji biru and marunouchi park building marunouchi p ku biru . 11 mitsubishi corporation businesses are divided into eight business sections business service group focuses on information technology . mitsubishi is the japanese partner of tata consultancy services and operates a data center in mitaka tokyo . 12 global environmental & infrastructure business group handles transportation water electricity and industrial projects . its infrastructure projects include airports in mandalay and ulaanbataar urban railways in cairo doha and dubai and power projects under the diamond generating and diamond transmission names . 13 in 2015 mitsubishi announced a strategic alliance with turkey s al k enerji to boost its infrastructure business in turkey and northern africa . 14 industrial finance logistics and development group engages in asset management asset financing real estate and logistics . 15 energy business group handles trading and investment in crude oil liquefied natural gas liquefied petroleum gas shale gas biofuel and other energy commodities in various countries . 16 metals group develops concessions and trades in coal iron ore nickel chrome copper aluminum uranium and platinum . 17 in 2014 mitsubishi opened a 3.4 billion coking coal mine in caval ridge queensland australia in a 50 50 joint venture with bhp billiton . 18 machinery group sells heavy machinery ships defense equipment and motor vehicles particularly for isuzu . 19 chemicals group manufactures and trades in a wide variety of commodity and functional chemicals especially petrochemicals . 20 living essentials group develops and trades in consumer products and manages retailing operations ; investor in lawson and alfamart . 21 of these segments energy is the largest by far accounting for almost half of the company s consolidated net income in the first half of fiscal year 2015 . 22 awards edit in 2008 mitsubishi corporation was crowned in house of the year trading company in house team of the year at the 2008 alb japan law awards . 23 environmental record edit the neutrality of this article is disputed . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met . september 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message this article s factual accuracy is disputed . please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced . see the relevant discussion on the talk page . september 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message in march 1998 the mitsubishi corporation received the quarterly greenwash award . it was awarded to mitsubishi corporation for successful efforts at portraying its business operations as environmentally friendly . through the use of public relations the corporation demonstrated to the world that their subsidiaries facility off the coast of mexico was environmentally benign . the facility is a salt evaporation factory and is in a lagoon that also holds a grey whale calving ground . 24 as of 2009 mitsubishi held between 35 % to 40 % of the worldwide market for bluefin tuna . 25 26 external links edit official website references edit a b c d e financial results for fiscal year ended march 31 2011 pdf . mitsubishi corporation . may 10 2011 . a b timeline of the life & times of yataro iwasaki . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 22 january 2015 . yanosuke expands mitsubishi s involvement in mining . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 22 january 2015 . a b koyata iwasaki standing by his convictions to the very end . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 22 january 2015 . the launch of the new mitsubishi shoji president takagaki urges fairness in business . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 22 january 2015 . a b corporate history . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 22 january 2015 . laying the foundations for success by expanding the company s global network . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 22 january 2015 . a b history of mitsubishi corporation . international directory of company histories vol . 12 . st. james press 1996 . retrieved 22 january 2015 . 1000 . the nikkei . 5 june 2016 . retrieved 15 june 2016 . company fact sheet . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved september 28 2011 . mitsubishi office access details . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved september 28 2011 . business service group . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 5 june 2015 . global environmental & infrastructure business group . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 5 june 2015 . humber yuriy 4 june 2015 . mitsubishi corp invests in turkey s calik to win energy orders . bloomberg . retrieved 5 june 2015 . industrial finance logistics & development group . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 5 june 2015 . energy business group . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 5 june 2015 . metals group . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 5 june 2015 . iwata mari 13 october 2014 . bhp mitsubishi open new coal mine amid market slump . the wall street journal . retrieved 5 june 2015 . machinery group . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 5 june 2015 . chemicals group . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 5 june 2015 . living essentials group . mitsubishi corporation . retrieved 5 june 2015 . results for six months ended september 2014 pdf . mitsubishi corporation . 11 november 2014 . retrieved 22 january 2015 . japan law awards 2008 . asian legal business . thomson reuters 8.5 32 . may 2008 . retrieved april 12 2014 via issuu . joshua karliner march 1 1998 . mitsubishi and laguna san ignacio . corpwatch . retrieved september 26 2014 . martin hickman june 3 2009 . revealed the bid to corner world s bluefin tuna market . the independent . retrieved february 24 2012 . bluefin tuna overfished bought and paid for by mitsubishi . youtube . retrieved september 26 2014 . tokyo portal companies portal v t e mitsubishi group members of mitsubishi kinyokai are bolded . foods and beverages kirin holdings pulp papers and fibers mitsubishi paper mills mitsubishi rayon construction p.s. mitsubishi construction chemicals mitsubishi chemical holdings mitsubishi chemical mitsubishi gas chemical mitsubishi plastics dai nippon toryo glass and ceramics asahi glass petroleum and nuclear power nippon oil group nippon oil mitsubishi nuclear fuel steel mitsubishi steel mfg non ferrous metals mitsubishi materials mitsubishi aluminum mitsubishi cable industries machinery mitsubishi kakoki mitsubishi heavy industries caterpillar japan toyo engineering works automobiles mitsubishi motors mitsubishi fuso truck and bus electrical equipment mitsubishi electric precision equipment nikon mitsubishi precision trading mitsubishi corporation astomos energy ryoshoku finance mitsubishi ufj financial group the bank of tokyo mitsubishi ufj mitsubishi ufj securities mitsubishi ufj trust and banking corporation mitsubishi auto leasing mitsubishi ufj nicos mitsubishi ufj lease & finance insurance tokio marine holdings tokio marine nichido meiji yasuda life real estate mitsubishi estate transport and warehousing mitsubishi logistics nippon yusen mitsubishi ore transport information and communication mitsubishi research institute mitsubishi space software it frontier mitsubishi zaibatsu iwasaki yataro iwasaki family kyu iwasaki tei gardens v t e nikkei 225 companies of japan 7