Kenzo Takekoshi
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
Sumitomo Corporation's parent was not a trading company but Osaka Hokko, established in December 1919 to reclaim land and improve the harbor in Osaka's Hokko district. It came under Sumitomo Goshi in 1927, merged with Sumitomo Building in November 1944 and was renamed Sumitomo Tochi Komu. The following month it took over the business of the Hasebe-Takekoshi architectural firm, becoming a comprehensive real estate company engaged in property management and the design and supervision of civil engineering and construction. Kenzo Takekoshi, whose name the architectural firm bore, was Senior Managing Director of Sumitomo Tochi Komu.
Selection
In 1920 Masaya Suzuki, Director-General of the Sumitomo zaibatsu, declared a ban on setting up a trading company, keeping Sumitomo out of the trading business for the next 25 years. With the end of the war in August 1945, military demand vanished and finding places for demobilized employees became urgent, so Director-General Shunnosuke Furuta decided to lift the ban. In November of that year Sumitomo Tochi Komu was renamed Nihon Kensetsu Sangyo and relaunched as a trading company handling the products of Sumitomo-affiliated companies and major manufacturers in various industries. Keijiro Kitazawa, a Managing Director of the Sumitomo head office who had also been serving as President, resigned, and Senior Managing Director Kenzo Takekoshi succeeded him.
Initiatives
The sale of civil engineering and construction materials and various other products was added to the business purposes in the articles of incorporation, and the head office was placed in Osaka. The practical side of trading was set up separately: the accounting and personnel departments of the Sumitomo head office named three candidates from among all staff, and Shunya Toji, a Director of Sumitomo Metal Industries and deputy head of its copper works, was chosen to lead it. Toji became Managing Director on December 11, 1945, and opened the sales department three weeks later on January 1, 1946. When the January 1947 purge order reached the business world, Takekoshi and two others who had been Managing Director or higher during the war fell under it, and he left the presidency on March 27 of that year.
Career
Career
Sumitomo Corporation
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1945 | President |
| Mar 1947 | Stepped down as President |