About Mitsubishi

History

• Mitsubishi traces its origins to Yataro Iwasaki's start-up shipping company in 1870 in Japan. Iwasaki's later buiness ventures included mining, shipbuilding, banking and insurance, establishing the foundation for the Mitsubishi organization worldwide.
  
  

Types

• More than a century later, the organization has companies in a wide range of industries including banking and securities, food, nonferrous metals, construction, textiles and apparel, consulting and research, real estate, transport equipment and insurance. In the United States, companies include AGC Flat Glass North America, Inc., Kirin Brewery of America LLC, Mitsubishi Cable America, Inc. and Mitsubishi Chemical America Inc. among many others.
  
  

Function

• Whether in the United States, Europe or Japan, the Mitsubishi group of companies function independently from each other but all adhere to three corporate philosophical principles: corporate social responsibility, integrity and fairness and international understanding through trade.
  
  

Size

• Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is perhaps the most known of the Mitsubishi companies; as of 2009 it is holding 15th place in car sales worldwide. Although Mitsubishi has branched throughout the world in a number of sectors of the world economy, only about 400 of those companies boast the Mitsubishi name and hundreds more go under a different name.
  
  

Identification

• The word Mitsubishi is made out of the words Mitsu--meaning three--and Hishi, meaning water chestnut, although the h sound is turned into b in Japanese when it happens in the middle of a word, hence the translation into Mitsubishi. The word has been used by the Japanese in reference to a three-diamond emblem, which the organization stylized and used for the Mitsubishi Motor Company and other businesses within the organization. The logo itself was adopted in honor of the three-leaf crest used by the Mitsubishi founder's first employer and the Iwasaki family's crest symbol. The tradition and importance of the emblem for the organization is such that they formed the Mitsubishi Corporate and Trademark Committee to watch over the proper use of the brand name and its mark worldwide.
  
  

Considerations

• Even with all of this, the organization has no exclusivity over the Mitsubishi name. Mitsubishi Pencil Co. Ltd.--a manufacturer of writing instruments and office supplies headquartered in Tokyo, Japan--has no relation with the Mitsubishi organization.
  
  

Significance

• The Mitsubishi extended corporate family has not only made an economic impact around the world, but their cultural legacy has made an impact in architecture, landscaping and oriental art. Their Asian Studies Center, for example, known as The Toyo Bunko, is the largest of its kind and the fifth largest in the world, and The Seikado Bunko Art Museum, founded by Mitsubishi's second president and his son, contains 5,000 books, pieces of art and varied art collections under permanent public display in Japan.