Zaibatsu
From Wacklepedia - The Free Encyclopedia
Zaibatsu (財閥) is a word meaning "money clique" or "
conglomerate" in the
Japanese language. It was used in the
19th century and the first half of the
20th century to refer to large family-controlled banking and industrial combines, especially the Big Four of
Mitsubishi,
Mitsui, Sumitomo, and Yasuda.
The term gained popularity in the United States in the 1980s to refer to any
large corporation, in large part from its usage in a few cyberpunk stories, but it is not used in Japan for anything other than historical discussions.
Since World War II, it has been replaced by keiretsu (系列), meaning "series" or "subsidiary."
See also