In 1867, Iwasaki was brought to work with Tosa Government’s trading office in Nagasaki. The next year he was transferred to Osaka. There he made more deals with foreign merchants exporting crops and importing weapons.
In 1870 Iwasaki took over Tosa’s debt of shipping company as his own. He renamed later in 1873 as Mitsubishi.
Mitsubishi began business with ten ships, With them the company entered the coastal trade edging out competitors by cutting edges.
The company got it first big break in 1874, when a competing shipping company refused a government request to transport munitions to Taiwan. Mitsubishi grabbed the opportunity and a year later the company received thirty ships form the government as a reward for its patriotism.
From the mid 1880s, Yataro Iwasaki began to diversify and it shift the focus of Mitsubishi’s business from shipping to heavy industry.
He began internalizing business that were complementary to shipping, and then spun off the internalized resources once they became independently capable of serviceable the main business.
When Iwasaki Yataro died, in 1885, his younger brother, Yanosuke, took over the Mitsubishi interest.
The new enterprise produced approximately 20 handmade Mitsubishi Model A passenger cars in 1917.
In 1946, the organization divided into 100 separate entities. Twelve years later Mitsubishi Trading established a division in the United States to export US goods and to import raw materials to Japan.
Yataro Iwasaki (1835-1885)
