is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo.

It is one of the largest Japanese sogo shosha (general trading and investment companies) distinguished by the strength of its textile business and its successful business operations in China.thumb|Tokyo headquarters of Itochu|260x260pxright|thumb|Osaka headquarters of Itochu (North Gate Building)|293x293px

Current business overview

Itochu's business has eight major operational divisions, "Division Company".

  • Textile Company: Itochu trades in raw materials and finished apparel, and also has a brand business. It owns a portfolio of investments and rights in well-known fashion brands including Converse, Hunting World, LeSportsac, Mila Schön and Paul Smith. In 2018, Itochu acquired the Japanese Master License and exclusive distribution rights for the Laura Ashley brand.
  • Machinery Company: Includes plant projects, marine, aerospace, automotive, construction/industrial machinery and healthcare. In the automotive sector, Itochu is a shareholder of Yanase, Isuzu, and Mazda. In the infrastructure sector, Itochu partnered with Toshiba and Hitachi to supply infrastructure for the first expressway in Vietnam, the North–South Expressway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Itochu is also a partner in supplying rolling stock for the MTR in Hong Kong and for New Generation Rollingstock passenger rail in Queensland, Australia. It is a minority investor in the Sarulla geothermal power project in Indonesia and has partnered with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Engie to develop the $15.8 billion Sinop Nuclear Power Plant in Sinop, Turkey.
  • Metals & Minerals Company: Engages in mining and ore trading, steel and non-ferrous metal trading, coal and nuclear fuel trading and solar power. Furthermore, the “Carbon Neutral Management Section” was established in April, 2021, directly under the Metal & Mineral Resources Division in order to promote the developments in areas such as Hydrogen & Ammonia and CCUS (Carbon dioxide Capture, Utilization and Storage). In addition, the Steel Business Coordination Department, which is directly overseen by the Metals & Minerals Company, provides support for Marubeni-Itochu Steel Inc. in the field of steel products.
  • Energy & Chemicals Company: consists of 3 divisions: the Energy Division, the Chemicals Division and the Power & Environmental Solution Division. The Energy Division handles trading of general energy-related products, including crude oil, petroleum products, LPG, LNG, natural gas and hydrogen, as well as developing related projects. This Division also undertakes projects in oil & gas exploration, development and production. Trades in oil and gas and a wide range of chemical products such as methanol, PTA and fertilizers.
  • Food Company: Handles production, processing and distribution of various foodstuffs. Two major group businesses are FamilyMart, acquired from Seiyu in 1998, and Dole Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd, which was formed after Dole Food Company sold its worldwide packaged foods and Asia fresh produce businesses to Itochu for $1.7 billion in cash. Itochu is also a strategic partner of COFCO in China and owns an export grain terminal in Longview, Washington. As of 2020 Itochu was one of the three largest global tuna traders along with Tri Marine of Italy and FCF of Taiwan.
  • General Products & Realty Company: consists with the Forest Products, General Merchandise & Logistics Division and the Construction & Real Estate Division. The Forest Products, General Merchandise & Logistics Division deals with North American building materials, pulp, natural rubber, tires, and the distribution business including third-party logistics (3PL) and international transportation. The Construction & Real Estate Division deals with the construction materials business that handles wood products and OEM materials, the real estate development business that develops mainly residential housing and logistics facilities, and the real estate investment and building operation and management business. A recent major acquisition in this division is WECARS, a major Japanese car retailer. Formerly known as Big Motor, the company was purchased by Itochu for ¥60 billion ($391 million) after scandal forced the company to rebrand.
  • ICT & Financial Business Company: consists with the ICT Division and the Financial & Insurance Business Division.
  • The 8th Company: collaborates with the other seven Business Companies.

Offices

Itochu's Osaka headquarters is located at the North Gate Building, 1–3, Umeda 3-Chome, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan. Its Tokyo headquarters is located at 5-1 Kita-Aoyama 2-Chome, Minato, Tokyo, Japan.

Itochu also has seven branch offices in Japan, sixteen offices and local subsidiaries in China, 24 in Asia, eight in the CIS, four in Australia, fifteen in the Middle East, eight in Africa, twelve in Europe, ten in North America and nine in Latin America.

History

Foundation period (1858–1903)

thumb|Founder Ito Chubei

Itochu started in 1858, shortly after the opening of Japan to foreign trade, when began door-to-door wholesaling of linen in the regions between Osaka and Kyushu. Itoh founded the "Benichu" drapery store in the Honmachi district of Osaka in 1872. This site was renamed "Itoh Honten" in 1884 and became the Itoh Thread and Yarn Store in 1893

In the following year, he traveled as far as Nagasaki via Okayama, Hiroshima, and Shimonoseki. At this time, Japan concluded the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with five countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the Netherlands, opening an era of free trade. The sight of foreigners, battleships, and foreign trading posts astonished Chubei and sparked his curiosity. He became convinced of the limitless potential of commerce.

Chubei opened Benchu, a drapery store at Honmachi 2-chome, Higashi-ku, Osaka, east of Nakahashisuji. Benchu mainly handled linen and fabrics from the Bino and Kanto regions. At that time, the Fushimi-machi area was the center of drapery wholesalers, while Honmachi was attracting many used clothing merchants. Despite this, in selecting the base of his business in Osaka, Chubei Itoh I chose Honmachi, anticipating the future development of the Honmachi area. He is said to have chosen Honmachi because it was accessible by road from Kawaguchi-cho, where boats could dock, and the cost of land was less than a half that in Fushimi-machi. Once Benchu was open, Chubei drew up a charter. In it, he set out his workers' rights and duties, unique for the time, to ensure that all workers, including junior staff, could work to their utmost capabilities.

Chubei opened Itoh Itomise, a cotton thread wholesale store, at Azuchi-cho 2-chome, Higashi-ku, Osaka. Under Chubei Itoh I, the general manager, the store started with ten workers, including an assistant general manager, manager, and assistant manager. Itoh Itomise adopted a series of management systems that were revolutionary for the times, including the codifying of the sharing of profits by three stakeholders, the introduction of Western-style bookkeeping, and the issuance of Jitsugyo, a monthly business magazine (which became a leading magazine for the fabric industry; with some copies sold to the public).

In 1913, he established a cotton yarn department, but in July 1914, World War I began, and he experienced a sharp drop in the market prices of raw silk and cotton yarn. Uncertainty about the course of the war caused the Japanese economy to temporarily fall into turmoil, with the stock market, raw silk and cotton yarn trading prices crashing, and bank runs on bank runs.

In 1918, "C. Itoh & Co." is transformed into a public stock company "C. Itoh & Co., Ltd." The New York branch office is opened.

Itoh's company grew considerably in the wake of World War I, with offices in the United States, India, the Philippines and China, and the firm began to handle machinery, automobiles and metals in addition to its core business of textiles. However, a recession in 1920 left the company deeply in debt, and unlike the major zaibatsu firms of the time, it had no captive bank to finance its business. In 1921, the company split in half, with one half forming what is now known as Marubeni. The company's performance improved in the 1930s, but as World War II began in the latter half of the 1930s, all trading companies' business became increasingly war-oriented.

Former Imperial Japanese Army staff officer Ryuzo Sejima joined Itoh in 1958 after spending 11 years in a Siberian prison. Four years later, he was promoted to director and became Itoh's head of corporate planning, implementing a military-style internal reporting system. He went on to serve as president and chairman of the company, having developed a powerful group of followers known as the "Sejima Machine."

In 1970, Sejima and his younger protege Minoru Murofushi arranged a joint venture between General Motors and Isuzu, one of the first tie-ups between US and Japanese automakers. In 1971, the company successfully assisted in arranging a basic contract for cooperation between General Motors of the United States and Isuzu of Japan. The first investment of GM taking a 34% stake in Isuzu was seen in 1972, when the Chevrolet LUV became the first Isuzu-built vehicle to be sold in the United States. While the company had a long relationship with GM going back to the 1920s, Isuzu introduced the Gemini in 1974 which was co-produced with General Motors as the T-body Chevrolet Chevette. A modified version was sold in the United States as Buick's Opel by Isuzu, and in Australia as the Holden Gemini. As a result of the collaboration, certain American GM products were sold to Japanese customers through Isuzu dealerships. The company assisted Isuzu to export also increased considerably as a result of being able to use GM networks, from 0.7% of production in 1973 to 35.2% by 1976; this while overall production increased more than fourfold in the same period.

Itoh absorbed Ataka & Co., the ninth largest general trading company in Japan, in 1977. Ataka had recently suffered major losses from an oil development project in the United States and had undergone restructuring at the direction of its main lender, Sumitomo Bank.

From the early 1970s Itoh was a major supplier of synthetic yarn (polyester) to India's Reliance Industries Limited. Over the years, the close collaboration between both companies culminated in the co-promotion of a world-scale Polypropylene Project with a capacity of 250,000 tonnes per annum at a total project cost of Rs. 525 Crores, at Hazira in the State of Gujarat. With a $50 million cost for a 15 percent stake, Itoh also marketed products—under their own label—as diverse as a line of bicycles (mostly manufactured by Bridgestone), and computer printers. Itochu began to develop a strong information technology business in the 1980s through its subsidiary C. Itoh Techno-Science (CTC), which acted as a Japan distributor for Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Oracle and others. This sharp policy caused the bursting of the bubble, and the Japanese stock market crashed. In the two decades starting from such period, the company experienced the challenges and restructured its portfolio.

On October 1, 1992, C. Itoh & Co. Ltd. changed its English name to Itochu Corporation, a more direct transliteration of its Japanese name.

In 1997, the company introduced "Division Company" system, which is to till today. With ITOCHU's operations in Japan and overseas becoming more diversified and the management environment changing very quickly, the Company recognized that it needed to adopt a more autonomous management approach, enabling greater agility by delegating authority and responsibility to its divisions. The concept of developing a “Division Company” system was created. Consequently, an examination committee was set up in 1995 and the system was adopted in FY1997. The main purposes of the system were, first, to create an optimal management system with independent management by the Division Companies (to create a system geared to the characteristics of the Companies, enable prompt decision making through a bold decentralization of authority, and build a more sophisticated management system based on consolidated performance and balance sheets); second, to establish a small and efficient head office; and third, to achieve the minimum control required in line with the decentralization of authority. By adopting this new approach, ITOCHU sought to strengthen its performance and operations, while bolstering its earnings. ITOCHU becomes the first sogo shosha to receive environmental certificate ISO14001. Itochu also spun off CTC in 1999, only to see CTC quickly achieve a market capitalization more than twice that of its former parent company. for holding a champagne soirée at LeSportsac's Omotesando flagship during Japan's so-called "3.11" chain of calamities that caused tens of thousands of deaths and $235 billion (World Bank) in damage.

In 2011, Itochu moved its Osaka headquarters to the North Gate Building adjacent to Osaka Station.

In 2013, Itochu implemented a general ban on work after 8 PM with an across-the-board "lights out" policy at 10 PM while encouraging that any necessary overtime be taken in the early morning hours, reducing the total amount of overtime across the company.

In 2014, Itochu entered into a cross-shareholding partnership with the Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand (CP), and together with CP, agreed to invest over $8 billion in the Chinese state-owned conglomerate CITIC Limited during 2015, the largest investment ever made by a Japanese general trading company. The transaction was also the largest acquisition in China by a Japanese company, and the largest investment by foreigners in a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

In March 2016, Itochu recorded JPY 352.2 bil in PAT in the fiscal year which ranked itself as the most profitable sogo shosha for its first time. The natural resources commodity price was decreased during the fiscal year ended in March 2016, which made its competitors Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co Ltd fell in profits. In July 2016, an American short seller Glaucus Research Group published a report critical of Itochu's accounting practices, causing a stock price dip of around 10%.thumb|HQ of Yanase, the largest retailer and importer of European and North American vehicles to Japan ([[Shibaura, Minato, Tokyo)]]In May 2017, Itochu acquired 10.1% share of Yanase which is an importer distributor of automobiles such as Mercedes-Benz, through TOB, which made Itochu to be 50.1% shareholder. Itochu participated in its equity earlier in 2003, and acquired further share to be a 66% shareholder in 2018.

In August 2018, Itochu acquired 8.6% share of FamilyMart which is Japan's second largest convenience store chain behind 7-Eleven, through TOB, which made Itochu the 50.1% shareholder. Itochu participated in its equity earlier in 1998, and, after merging other competitors including CircleK, acquired further share to be a 95% shareholder in 2021.

thumb|223x223px|[[FamilyMart store]]

In 2019 and 2020, Itochu was ranked the most popular employer for newly minted Japanese university graduates. Itochu has remained one of the most popular employers for graduates of top Japanese universities since the 1990s due to their high compensation levels, employment stability and the diversity of opportunities available to prospective employees.

In September 2020, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced that it had acquired over 5% of the stock in the company, along with four other Japanese trading houses, over the 12-month period ending in August 2020. By April 2023, Berkshire increased the stake to 7.4%.

In March 2021, Itochu ended its fiscal year by becoming the most profitable (recording JPY 401.4 bil in PAT) and the most valued (recording JPY 5,685 bil in market capitalization) sogo shosha in Japan.

On 5 February 2024, Itochu Chief Financial Officer Tsuyoshi Hachimura, announced that the company was to end its partnership with the Israeli military technology company Elbit after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel the prior month to prevent alleged acts of genocide against Palestinians and to do more to help the region's civilians. It also purchased Big Motor following a series of scandals, finalising the transaction on 1 May.

Notable people

  • Mac Akasaka, rare earths trader, perennial candidate in Japanese elections
  • Ichirō Fujisaki, former Japanese ambassador to the United States, currently member of the Board of Directors of Itochu
  • Hiroyuki Nagahama, member of the House of Representatives and Environment Minister in 2012, worked for Itochu early in his professional career
  • Uichirō Niwa, president from 1998 to 2004, later Japanese ambassador to China
  • Ryūzō Sejima, chairman from 1978 to 1981, Kwantung Army staff officer during World War II
  • Toshiyuki Takano, retired diplomat, currently executive advisor to Itochu
  • Tsuneharu Takeda, former Imperial prince and later ambassador to Bulgaria, worked at Itochu from 1967 to 2005 and served as head of its subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand.
  • Teruhide Kikuchi, former official distributor of Nintendo in Mexico during the 1980s and early 1990s.

References

  • Company history
  • English

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