Katsujiro Takagaki
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He was President of the old Mitsubishi Corporation, and at its dissolution on November 30, 1947, gave a farewell address to employees the day before. Its roughly 4,100 employees at the time, apart from those who stayed for liquidation work, scattered to more than 120 new companies. When 12 companies from the old trading company were consolidated into three, Fuji Shoji, Tokyo Boeki and Tozai Koeki, in 1952, he led the four-company merger as one of three elders together with Kanzo Tanaka and Ichiro Hattori.
Selection
Agreement on the four-company merger was reached in December 1953, and the merger contract was signed in January 1954. In June of that year the company listed its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and on July 1 it absorbed Fuji Shoji, Tokyo Boeki and Tozai Koeki, relaunching as a general trading company. Katsujiro Takagaki became President at the time of this relaunch. Negotiations to bring together four companies of differing size and earning power had been difficult, and his standing as a former President of the old Mitsubishi Corporation appears to have been used to bring them together.
Initiatives
With the merger the company raised its capital to ¥650 million and added the buying and selling of various goods and import-export business to the business purposes in its articles of incorporation. In the same month as the merger it established Mitsubishi International Corporation in the United States, followed by Mitsubishi subsidiaries in Germany in 1955 and Australia in 1958, restoring the overseas bases lost in the dissolution. Warehousing was transferred to the subsidiary Ryoko Soko in April 1954. In the fiscal year ended March 1955, the year after the merger, it overtook Mitsui & Co. in both sales and profit to become the industry leader.
Career
Career
Mitsubishi Corporation
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1954 | President |
| 1960 | Stepped down as President |