Foundation: 1949
Headquarters: Kita Ward, Osaka
President and CEO: Masahiro Okafuji
Executive Summary: Itochu Corporation is one of the largest Japanese general trading companies, distinguished by not being descended from one of the historical zaibatsu corporations. Itochu’s origins are found in a prewar textile business founded by Chubei Itoh in 1858. Itoh’s company originally sold hemp cloth. By 1949–then under the name Daiken Co.–the prewar firm was split into four under US Occupation anti-trust legislation. One of these successor companies became C. Itoh & Co., which was later renamed Itochu Corporation. It developed as a textile trading company and expanded into heavy chemical products during the high-growth period of the 1960s to become a general trading company. In 1998, it brought FamilyMart Co. under its wing. As a major general trading company with approximately one hundred bases in dozens of countries around the world, it is currently engaged in domestic, import, export, and intermediary trade in the fields of textiles, machinery, metals, energy, chemicals, food, housing, information, and finance, as well as business investments in Japan and overseas. Itochu’s annual income is in the range of US$45 billion.
