Foundation: 1919
Headquarters: Chiyoda Ward, Osaka
President and CEO: Kuniharu Nakamura
Executive Summary: Sumitomo Corporation is a diversified, general trading company incorporated in 1919. One of the top three general trading companies of Japan, conducting trade across a vast range of products. It works with logistics and development in addition to resource exploration and international business. Sumitomo Corporation began as the Osaka North Harbour Company in 1919. It operated in the region of Osaka, working in land management as well as other related construction and development fields. It merged in 1944 with the Sumitomo Building Company to become the Sumitomo Building and Real Estate Company. The company was broken up under the US occupation, but it had reformed after a decade when antitrust efforts faded. In 1952 it became Sumitomo Shoji Kaisha and soon emerged as one of Japan’s “Big Three” general trading companies along with Mitsui and Mitsubishi. From 1955 to 1975, the company’s volume of transactions grew rapidly. In 1970, Sumitomo merged with Sogo Boeki Company and took on its current English name, Sumitomo Corporation. Natural resources and energy investment form a large part of the company’s portfolio, as do its international collaborations on transportation. Its annual income is in the range of US$40 billion.
