The equal merger with Mitsui Line under the shipping consolidation policy (1963)

A consolidation set by the state, a partner chosen by the company

The state set the frame of consolidation, but who to combine with inside that frame was decided by the company. What Osaka Shosen chose was not a rival competing for the same passengers and cargo in the same near-sea trades, but Mitsui Line, which had begun with the carriage of Miike coal and made the deep-sea routes its main ground. That sailings on the New York service went from two a month each to four, that the agencies were unified, and that Sumitomo and Mitsui finance stood side by side behind the shipper affiliations, appears to follow from adding together bloodlines that barely overlapped. Takeda’s pride that the gains of the merger were the largest among the core groups was pride about that choice of partner.

It is hard, though, to credit the results to the merger alone. Takeda himself acknowledged that the company was blessed by the objective condition of strong exports, and the ¥3.1 billion improvement in profit in fiscal 1964 had help from the market. The consolidation itself rested on deferred interest and subsidy, and Miyamoto had calculated the losses that would follow if the support were withdrawn and argued for keeping the system in place. The corporate name that set both companies’ names side by side also lasted thirty-five years, with the internal fusion still incomplete. What remained as the company’s own choice, in a merger pushed by national policy, was the selection of the partner — and the decision not to erase its name.