ZAIBATSU of Japan
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THE ZAIBATSU OF JAPAN
Japan's version of organized capitalism had many similarities to Germany's. Japan also leaped ahead in the 1870sand Japan also embraced a conception of the company that combined up-to-date professionalism with a pronounced and sometimes atavistic nationalism.
In 1868, the shogunate that had ruled the country for more than 250 years collapsed, and power reverted to the sixteenyear-old emperor Meijior rather to the officials and oligarchs who surrounded him. Some of the samurai who supported the restoration hoped that the emperor would cleanse the country of barbarians. Instead, the ruling oligarchs decided to open the country to the West as part of their "rich country, strong army" policy. They invited more than 2,400 foreigners from twenty-three different countries to provide instruction in Western methods. Employment of foreign experts accounted for about 2 percent of government expenditure. 26 The state forced the samurai to shed their feudal ways and wear Western clothes. It also created business opportunities
by selling state-owned factories for a song, introducing jointstock-company laws, abolishing the guilds and other restrictions on occupational choice, and preaching that moneymaking was perfectly compatible with Shinto and Buddhist religious beliefs,
as well as being downright patriotic. Many samurai reinvented themselves as businessmen, often starting companies with the compensation money they were given for giving up their military duties...