Rihei Kawamura

…Although it was one of the three major cotton trading companies, it was slow to join the trend of direct purchases from the source after the Russo-Japanese War and scaled back its cotton business. It then acquired Osaka Twisted Silk (1903) and Nippon Boshoku (1905) to enter the spinning industry. Based on its experience in the cotton-related product trade in China, and at the initiative of director Kawamura Rihei, who advocated expansion into the continent, it built its third factory (20,000 spindles) in Shanghai in 1911, marking the beginning of new spinning factories in China. It expanded to Qingdao in 1917 and Jinzhou in 1925, and just before the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, it had nine factories in Shanghai, three in Qingdao, and three in Jinzhou, with a total of 460,000 spindles, accounting for 20% of the total number of spindles in China. …

*Some of the terminology explanations that mention "Kawamura Toshibei" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…三大綿花商社の一つであったが，日露戦争後には産地直買いの動きに立ち遅れて綿商業を縮小し，大阪撚糸(1903)，日本紡織(1905)を買収して紡績業に進出した。中国での綿関係品商業の経験を前提に，大陸進出論者川邨（かわむら）利兵衛取締役の主唱によって1911年上海に第3工場(2万錘)を建設し，工場新設による在華紡の嚆矢（こうし）となった。17年青島，25年金州に進出し，37年日中戦争直前には上海9工場，青島3工場，金州3工場，46万錘を擁して在華紡錘数の20％を占めた。…

※「川邨利兵衛」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報