Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is the lead producer of Japanese defense equipment and is Japan's only producer of fixed-wing aircraft. Japan's ¥1.4 trillion aerospace sector, about half of which is based in Chubu, is led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. As the pioneer of Japan's aerospace fields, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) conducted research and development utilizing the state-of-the-art technology, and can boast of ample achievements both inside and outside of this country. Ever since the development of the YS-11, Japan's civil aircraft, the aircraft helicopter department has accumulated various achievements in the development production for the Japan Defense Agency and for civil aircraft, and recently, in September 2000, MHI delivered to the Japan Defense Agency the first model of the F-2 support fighter, a joint project of Japan and the U.S., which is core to Japan's self-defense.

The popular notion of keiretsu today centers upon a half-dozen groups made up of Japan's corporate giants, most of whom have pedigrees reaching back to the Meiji era of the late 19th century. Commonly dubbed the "big-6" industrial groups (roku-dai kigyo or kigyo shudari), these keiretsu bring together the major "city" banks, large manufacturing concerns, general trading companies (sogo shosha), and trust banks and insurance companies. In large part, the "big-6" are reconfigurations of the member firms of the pre-war oligopolistic family concerns known as zaibatsu. However, today's groups not only lack their predecessors' close family control, exercised through holding companies, but their members appear to engage in more independent action and less internalized trade.

Because these groups are each organized around a large bank, and because the firms are linked more by finances than products, they are also often known as financial keiretsu (kinyu keiretsu). The giant, diversified general trading companies, of which one is typically associated with each of the six groups, have also taken on some of the coordinating and "flagship" roles performed in the pre-war years by the zaibatsu holding companies. However, the trading companies also play prominent roles in both international trade and the domestic distribution of goods in their own right.

The six inter-market keiretsu can be further subdivided. First, there are three groups which are descendants of three of the major zaibatsu of the prewar era (the Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo houses), (see figure 6). The other three inter-market groups formed around major commercial banks (Fuyo, Sanwa Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank). The major qualitative difference between the two types is a somewhat lesser degree of affinity or cohesiveness among firms of the latter type, apparent in a lower incidence of intra-group transactions and shareholding.

An extraordinary man, a retainer of Tosa clan, named Iwasaki Yataro, established a small steamship company at Osaka. It was called The Mitsubishi Shokai (The Three Caltrops Trading Co.). With two or three steamers this company opened a regular service between the province of Tosa and the city of Osaka, only one hundred miles apart from each other. The first Formosan expedition was undertaken in 1874. This expedition made a considenable contribution to the development of Japanese navigation. The time being not far from the Restoration there was but a scanty supply of all kinds of war materials.

The Government accordingly bought from other countries thirteen steamers for use as transports, aggregating about 13,000 tons. Even then the officers on board these steamers were all foreigners. Japanese were looked upon as without sufficient training and experience for the navigation of the stormy sea of South China. Soon after the peace negotiations between our Ambassador at Peking, Mr., afterward Marquis, Okubo and the Peking Court reached a favorable conclusion, and the forces were withdrawn. The thirteen newly bought steamers were no longer of direct service to the Government. The newly bought steamers were lent to this company, which was thus able to open a regular line between Yokohama, Kobe, and Shanghai.

This new line was of course in direct competition with the foreign lines then in operation between the same ports, as well as with other native companies. With the enlargement of the Mitsubishi our navigation began to thrive; but the more the number of steamers increased the sharper became the competition. Moreover, the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., whose steamers were running regularly between Yokohama and Shanghai, began to assume an aggressive attitude toward Japanese companies, especially toward the Mitsubishi.

By 1918 Mitsubishi was one of the largest private concerns in Japan and had a capital of about $100,000,000. The company is engaged in many important lines of industry and commerce, the principal ones being mining and metallurgy, shipbuilding, docking, engineering, banking, warehousing, paper manufacturing, iron production, management of estates, oil refining, importing and exporting, etc. It was the proprietor of several mines, shipyards and workshops, and owned large landed properties in Tokio and in many other parts of the country.

Until 1917, all the company branches were organized as departments of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha. Recently, however, most of these departments (excepting the banking and estate departments) separated from the latter and each has become an independent company. The original President of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha controls and supervises this system of companies.

The banking department had several branches in Japan, one in Shanghai and one in London. It is one of the largest private banking houses in Japan, having a long list of foreign clients, enjoying the confidence of the public and wielding a considerable influence in the money market of the country. The business transacted by the department covers nearly all branches of general banking as well as foreign exchange.

The mining company ranked among the largest Japanese mine owners. It included about thirty coal mines, the annual output of which amounts to 5,000,000 tons, and as many metal mines (annual production of copper 67,500,000 pounds). The coal from the collieries of the company was especially in demand and commanded a large sale in the market of Japan through the Trading Company. It was moreover exported in large quantities to Chinese and Korean ports, Hongkong, Manila, Singapore, etc., also to the Pacific Coast of North America and is supplying bunker coal through many coaling depots of the Mitsubishi Trading Company.

The importing and exporting company (Sheji Kaisha) had many branches in the chief cities in Japan and China, in Vladivostok, Singapore and Calcutta, besides being represented by the branches of the Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha in London, New York, Genoa and Paris. This company had great advantages in buying and selling various kinds of goods at exceptionally low prices.

Following the end of World War II, a law aimed at dissolving "zaibatsu" or Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works dismantling the over concentration of economic power was in effect. Thus, in 1950, MHI was divided into three entities: West Japan Heavy-Industries, Ltd., Central Japan Heavy-Industries, Ltd. and East Japan Heavy-Industries, Ltd. It was later consolidated in 1964 and reborn as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

In 1970, MHI's automobile department became independent and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation began manufacturing and marketing automobiles. Integrating each company's management and technical expertise and enhancing competitiveness in domestic and international markets, MHI has come a long way.

In December 2010 Japan’s Ministry of Defense selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI) proposal to supply the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) with a new fleet of advanced UH-60J search and rescue helicopters. The aircraft will be produced under license from Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. The new fleet will replace 40 MHI-built UH-60J search and rescue helicopters currently in operation with the JASDF since 1991. The new aircraft will be phased into service over 20 years. Over the life of the program, MHI is expected to receive a total of 190 billion yen (approx. $2.3 billion) from the Japan Ministry of Defense for all 40 new-generation UH-60J helicopters, including 20 years of logistics support.

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries revealed 07 June 2019 that it is in talks to acquire a regional jet program from rival Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier. Mitsubishi Heavy said it was negotiating to buy the Canadian firm's 50-100-seat regional jet program. The CRJ1000 gave Bombardier Aerospace a larger common family of regional jets: 50-seat CRJ200, 70-seat CRJ700, 86 to 90-seat CRJ900 and the 100-seat CRJ1000. The company had its own regional jet program, Mitsubishi Regional Jet, or MRJ, making 70-90-seat passenger planes, but it has been delayed due to a series of problems. The company had postponed MRJ delivery dates five times so far. It now set the jetliner's first delivery date for the middle of 2020, seven years behind the original schedule.

Bombardier has much experience in the field of regional jets. It has a big share of the world's regional jet market, along with Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer. Mitsubishi Heavy wanted to improve know-how in developing regional jets and its maintenance system after delivery. The Japanese firm also apparently aims to gain an edge in development and sales in the market by acquiring its rival's program.