zaibatsu, Japanese `financial clique'
Japanese industrial conglomerate (see
cartel). The old, family-owned Japanese
zaibatsu had been involved in the military
buildup preceding World War II, and were in
1945, after the country's defeat, broken up
by the authorities of the US occupation.
Similar conglomerates soon formed in the
course of Japan's industrial revival. By the
late 1980s there were six zaibatsu with
650-member companies between them, employing
6% of the country's workforce and controlling
more than 2% of the world economy.