Yanosuke Iwasaki

Japanese: 岩崎弥之助 - いわさき・やのすけ

Year of death: March 25, 1908 (Meiji 41)
Year of birth: 8th January 1851 (8th February 1851)
A Meiji-era businessman. The second head of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu. He was the second son of Iwasaki Yajiro, a ronin from Inokuchi Village, Aki County, Tosa Province (Kochi Prefecture), and the younger brother of Yataro. His mother was Miwa. After graduating from the Tosa Domain's Chidokan school, he went to live with his older brother in Osaka and studied under a private tutor in New York. In 1873, he became vice president of Mitsubishi Shokai, married Goto Shojiro's eldest daughter, Sanae, and helped his brother modernize Mitsubishi. After his brother's death in 1884, he renamed the company Mitsubishi and became its president. He implemented a strategy of "from sea to land," first acquiring the Nagasaki Shipyard in 1887 and developing it into a modern shipyard, then acquiring 11 coal mines in Kitakyushu and Hokkaido, and six mines including Sado and Ikuno. He also acquired the 119th National Bank, and founded Mitsubishi Paper Mills, Koiwai Farm, and Kirin Brewery. By 1951, he had acquired 2,336 hectares of land nationwide, managed 1,126 hectares of tenanted land in Niigata Prefecture, and also entered the Kojima Bay reclamation project. In 1947, he bought 43,000 m2 of wild land in Marunouchi, Tokyo, which had been used by the army, for 1.5 million yen, intending it to be a donation. When asked what he was doing with it, he laughed and said, "What, plant some bamboo and raise a tiger?" However, before long, many large buildings were built in Marunouchi, and it became the headquarters of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu. In the 1950s, he invested in Sanyo Railway, Kyushu Railway, Chikuho Kogyo Railway, Hokuetsu Railway, Iwaetsu Railway, and others, contributing to the modernization of railways. In 1948, he became a member of the House of Peers, and in 1954, he became the fourth governor of the Bank of Japan. With the coming into force of the Commercial Code in 1951, he established the Mitsubishi Limited Partnership Company, with Yataro's eldest son Hisaya as president and Yanosuke as supervisor, but Hisaya had a gentle disposition, so Yanosuke's rule actually lasted until around 1965. Mitsubishi Joint Stock Company had banking, sales, mining and shipbuilding departments, and developed a decentralized business division system based on independent accounting. The sales division in particular started out by selling coal and copper, and diversified the products it handled, laying the foundations for a general trading company. Yanosuke's management philosophy was rationalism and gradualism, and he was a conservative yet proactive second-generation leader who did not make arbitrary decisions and developed Mitsubishi from a political business to a zaibatsu based on modern industry. He had three children, and his eldest son, Koyata, succeeded Hisaya as the fourth head of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu. <References> "The Life of Iwasaki Yanosuke" edited by the Iwasaki Yataro and Yanosuke Biography Editorial Committee, "Mitsubishi Zaibatsu History: Meiji Edition" by Mishima Yasuo

(Yasuo Mishima)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治41.3.25(1908)
生年：嘉永4.1.8(1851.2.8)
明治期の実業家。三菱財閥の2代目当主。土佐国(高知県)安芸郡井ノ口村の地下浪人の岩崎弥次郎の次男で,弥太郎の弟。母は美和。土佐藩校の致道館を修了後,大阪の兄のもとに行き,ニューヨークで家庭教師に学んだ。明治6(1873)年に三菱商会の副社長に就任し,後藤象二郎の長女の早苗と結婚し,兄を助けて三菱の近代化を進めた。兄の死後の19年に三菱社と改称して社長に就任し,「海から陸へ」の戦略を実行し,まず20年に長崎造船所の払い下げを受けて近代的造船所に育成し,北九州と北海道の炭坑11カ所,佐渡と生野を含む鉱山6カ所を買収した。また第百十九国立銀行を買収し,三菱製紙,小岩井農場,麒麟麦酒を創設した。 26年までに全国で2336町歩の土地を取得し,新潟県では1126町歩の小作地を経営し,児島湾干拓事業にも進出した。22年に東京・丸の内の陸軍用地の原野13.5万坪を150万円で,献金のつもりで買い取り,目的を聞かれて「なに竹を植えて虎でも飼うさ」と大笑したが,やがて丸の内には大ビルが多数建設され,三菱財閥の本拠地になった。20年代には山陽鉄道,九州鉄道,筑豊興業鉄道,北越鉄道,岩越鉄道などに出資し,鉄道の近代化に貢献。23年貴族院議員,29年には第4代日本銀行総裁に就任。 26年の商法施行とともに三菱合資会社を発足させ,弥太郎の長男の久弥が社長,弥之助が監務に就任したが,久弥は温和な性格であったので,実際には弥之助の時代は40年ごろまで続いた。三菱合資本社には銀行部,営業部,鉱山部,造船部が設置され,独立採算に基づく分権的事業部制が展開された。特に営業部は社炭,社銅の販売から出発して取り扱い商品を多角化させ,総合商社の基礎を築いた。弥之助の経営理念は合理主義と漸進主義で,専断を行わず,三菱を政商から近代産業を基盤とする財閥へ発展させた保守的かつ積極的な2代目であった。3子があり,長男小弥太は久弥のあと三菱財閥4代目当主となった。<参考文献>岩崎弥太郎・弥之助伝記編纂会編『岩崎弥之助伝』,三島康雄『三菱財閥史・明治編』

(三島康雄)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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