The was a leading Japanese

keiretsu A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. In the legal sense, it is a type of informal business group that are loosely organized alliances within the social world of Japan's business community. The '' ...

, based in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, between

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the

Japanese asset price bubble The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and Japan's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceleration of ...

in the early 1990s. It remains in existence as a jointly held company called .

Sanwa Bank was a major Japanese bank headquartered in Osaka, which operated from 1933 to 2002. It merged with Tokai Bank to form UFJ Bank (now part of MUFG Bank). In the 1990s, it was the most profitable bank in the world, and second-largest in terms of ass ...

was a major financier for the textile industry in the 1950s. After arranging an affiliation between Ube Industries and Nippon Rayon in 1954, Sanwa began promoting industrial transactions between its major customers, formalizing the process in the early 1960s through the establishment of special promotion units. In 1968, Sanwa arranged the merger of the Nissho and Iwai trading companies to form Nissho Iwai (now

Sojitz is a ''sogo shosha'' (general trading company) based in Tokyo, Japan. It is engaged in a wide range of businesses globally, including buying, selling, importing, and exporting goods, manufacturing and selling products, providing services, and pl ...

), creating a large general trading company to cater to its customers. The three largest members of the group ( Hitachi Shipbuilding,

Ube Industries is a Japanese chemical company manufacturing chemicals, plastics, battery materials, pharmaceuticals, cement, construction materials, and machinery. The former company name is The company was founded in 1897 when Sukesaku Watanabe —an indus ...

and

Teijin is a Japanese chemical, pharmaceutical and information technology company. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers such as aramid, carbon fibers & composites, healthcare, films, resin & plastic processing, polyester fibers, produc ...

) had relatively independent positions with no cross-shareholdings. The development of this group paralleled the development of the

Fuyo Group is a Japanese ''keiretsu'' descended from the Yasuda zaibatsu, Asano zaibatsu and Okura zaibatsu. They are major business grouping in Japan up to World War II. In 1948, Yasuda was dismantled, with its key financial arm Yasuda Bank becoming Fuj ...

and

DKB Group The or the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Group was the largest Japanese keiretsu in the late 1990s. The group emerged after World War II and coalesced around the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. Two of DKB's largest clients, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Furukawa Electri ...

around alliances between major banks and trading companies. The Sanwa Group held a collective exhibition at

Expo '70 The or Expo 70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fai ...

in Osaka called . Later that year, 31 Sanwa Group members formed Midori-kai as a joint venture company. It eventually grew to 157 members, serving as a common HR, insurance and business support platform. After the stock market and real estate crash in the 1990s, the group's core bank,

(三和銀行) was laden with bad debts. In 2001, it merged with

Tokai Bank Tōkai ( 東海, literally ''East Sea'') in Japanese may refer to: * Tōkai region, a subregion of Chūbu * Tōkai, Ibaraki, a village, also known as "Tokaimura" (Tokai-village) * Tōkai, Aichi, a city * Tōkai University, a private university in T ...

and Toyo Trust and Banking Company to form UFJ Holdings (UFJホールディングス), with the UFJ Group (UFJグループ) taking over from Sanwa Group. Later, UFJ Holdings merged with

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi is the largest bank in Japan. It was established on January 1, 2006, following the merger of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. and UFJ Bank Ltd. MUFG is one of the three so-called Japanese "megabanks" (along with SMBC and Mizuho). As such, ...

to form Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

References

External links

Midori Kai
�� Conglomerate companies of Japan Defunct companies of Japan Keiretsu Midori-kai Companies based in Osaka Prefecture Companies established in the 1940s Conglomerate companies disestablished in 2001 1940s establishments in Japan Japanese companies disestablished in 2001 {{japan-company-stub