The Sogo Shosha (jap. sogoshosha) is large Japanese trading firms, which act internationally. As generalists these companies act with everything: Raw materials, intermediate products, finished products and services, are for instance chemicals, textiles, power stations and similar large-scale installations and electronics. The selling structure covers branch offices, like branches, subsidiaries, connected enterprises. The Japanese trading firms fulfill one, for the Japanese national economy, enormously important function - they ensure for the fact that Japanese products and services in the whole world paragraph find. Individual Japanese manufacturer have usually no or badly removed own selling ways, and leave this role to a trading firm.

Within Japan the large trading firms pass their goods on to the wholesale chains, which resell these then to the smaller retail chains. Often the Sogo Shosha appears also only as mediators of large Deals.

Originally, thus with beginning of the industrialization end 19. Century up to the end of the Second World War, the trading firms were a firm component of the Zaibatsu, large industrial conglomerates, to which beside the production enterprises also a house bank and evenly a trading firm belonged. With smashing these structures by the allied crew government the trading firms were connected nominal independently, actually them however by over cross participation with other companies of the former conglomerates (keiretsu). The Sogo Shosha of the 1960ern into the 1980er year had their large time, of the beginning of high growth up to the blow-out of the Bubble Economy.

By the globalization starting from the 1990er years the meaning of the large trading firms decreased however, since Japanese companies in the general crisis began, strengthened directly with foreign partners to act and to Discounter in the domestic market the classical selling ways went around.

The six large trading firms

• Mitsubishi
• Mitsui
• Itochu
• Sumitomo
• Marubeni
• Sojitz

Articles in category "Sogo Shosha"

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