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Group Affiliation and Industrial Organization Title GROUP AFFILIATION AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION Author(s) KOBAYASHI, Yoshihiro Citation HOKUDAI ECONOMIC PAPERS, 7, 24-40 Issue Date 1977 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/30674 Type bulletin (article) File Information 7_P24-40.pdf Instructions for use Hokkaido University Collection of Scholarly and Academic Papers : HUSCAP GROUP AFFILIATION AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION Yoshihiro KOBAYASHI INTRODUCTION This paper aims to clarify the role and significance of group affiliation in the economic performance of this country. One of the most distinguished features of industrial organization here is in fact that many large enterprises are grouped in various patterns of combination, including cross-tie ownership and grouped financing by main banks, although they are not so tightly in­ tegrated as were coalesced by Zaibatsu in the pre-war days. Industrial organization has been extensively studied as to the structure of a market dealing only in a single commodity, using an industrial concentra­ tion ratio or market share as the index of the structure of this market and considering market performance to be mainly dependent on the market struc­ ture represented by such a ratio or share. Modern corporation are charac­ terized, however, by the largeness of magnitude and the great degree of diversification of activity. Even if a corporation has a small market share in the business of a commodity, it may wield its market power in that busi­ ness by the largeness of its magnitude. A firm doing a diversified business may increase its market share in a branch of the business lowering the prices of a commodity even if it sustains a loss in that branch, as it can offset the loss by higher profits in other branches which enjoy monopolistic advantages. A firm belonging to a group may gain a similar position in the market to that of the foregoing firm. The main theme of analyses of grouping of firms or group affiliation is to look into the reason why a firm forming a group has a superior position in the market to independent firms. First of all, the author will show the scale and power of affiliated groups in Japan in Section I. Next, he is going to classify their types and describe their features in Section II. In Section III, he will set forth the features of shareholdings which characterize the states of combination in group mem­ bers. Finally he will examine what effects a group bring about on each of its members. 1. THE WEIGHT AND POWER OF GROUPED FIRMS IN JAPANESE ECONOMY Different in patterns as it may be to have a group affiliation organized In this country, the so-called Big Six stand out. They are Mitsui Group, GROUP AFFILIATION AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION 25 Mitsubishi Group, Sumitomo Group, Fuji Group, Sanwa Group and Dai-Ichi Kangin Group. Called Big Three, the first three, were the so-called Zaibatsu until they were dissolved in 1947, while the second three were also once. more or less, Zaibatsu entities, although they were smaller than the former_ Having uprisen in the post-war period, Shin Nittetsu Group, Nissan-Hitachi Group, Matsushita Group and Toyota Group have attended to such key industries as manufacture iron and steel products, electric machinery, and automobiles]). The Independent Groups, as they are called, have the scale and weight bearing significantly on the national economy as well. Table 1 shows the ratio of total value of sales of each Big Six group to the value of sales of the whole industries. Mitsui Group occupies 3.66% ; TABLE 1 RATIO OF TOTAL VALUE OF SALES OF EACH BIG SIX GROUP TO THE VALUE OF SALES OF WHOLE INDUSTRIES Year INumber of I i Members 1970 1973 1974 1975 I (%) (%) (%) (%) Whole Industries I 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 Mitsui 19 4.32 4.02 4.10 3.66 Mitsubishi 22 4.35 4.12 4.34 3.93 Sumitomo 12 1.96 2.10 2.31 2.22 Sanwa 33 4.32 3.84 3.87 3.46 Fuji 25 4.12 3.48 3.71 3.60 DaHchi Kangin 60 6.33 5.61 5.77 5.52 Source: Taya Keizai, Kigyo Keiretsu Saran, 1977. TABLE 2 RATIO OF TOTAL ASSETS OF EACH BIG SIX GROUP TO THE SUM OF ASSETS OF WHOLE INDUSTRIES I ~u N11~~b~r~ I 1970 1973 I 1974 1975 _______-+ I ___ ---+-'-_"-'-(%=0)_-+-_(,,%.:.1-)_-+-_(>-<-%:.1-)_-'-----'('-'-%:.;.)_ Whole Industries I I 10000 100.00 I, 100.00 100.00 Mitsui i 19 \ 4:17 3.71 I 3.56 3.41 Mitsubishi 22 4.70 428 4.19 3.98 Sumitomo 12 2.26 2.06 2.08 2.07 Sanwa 33 4.46 4.00 3.98 3.81 Fuji 25 4.74 3.98 4.01 3.93 Dai-ichi Kangin 60 9.07 6.43 6.48 6.34 Source: Toyo Keizai, Kigyo Keiretsu Saran, 1977. 1) Shin Nittetsu was formed by a merger in 1970 between Yawata Iron & Steel and Fuji Iron & Steel, the merger being biggest in scale after the end of WW II. 26 Y. KOBAYASHI Mitsubishi 3.93%; and Sumitomo 2.22%2). Dai-Ichi Kangin Group accounts for a large part of sales in the whole industry; it consists of a large number of firms served by a core bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, which was formed by a merger in 1972 between The Dai-Ichi Bank and The Nippon Kangyo Bank. Indeed it is large in scale and number of firms, but the members find themselves loosely to the group, a little differently from other groups. Table 2 shows the ratio of total assets of each Big Six group to the sum of assets of the whole industries. Both the ratio of the value of sales and the ratio of assets are fairly large. It must be noted that the total values of sales and the total assets of each group in Tables 1 and 2 represent only those of the main firms, which are called presidents' club members3). Since Tables 1 and 2 represent only larger firms belonging to the groups, if one sums up the total value of sales including smaller firms, the ratio to the whole industries will be larger than the ratios in both the tables. Table 3 shows the ratio of total value of sales of each Independent Group to those of the whole industries. Percentages are also large. Thus, it can be said that the groups of firms stand for a fairly large part of the economy of this country. TABLE 3 RATIO OF TOTAL VALUE OF SALES OF EACH INDEPENDENT GROUP TO THOSE OF WHOLE INDUSTRIES 'Whole Industries 100.00 100.00 100.00 Shin Nittetsu 28 1.20 1.09 1.06 Nissan-Hitachi 13 1.51 1.23 1.18 Matsushita 11 0.79 0.63 0.58 Toyota 11 1.46 1.14 1.25 Source; Keizai Chosa Kyokai, Keiretsu no Kenkyu, 1971, 1976 and 1977. Toyo Keizai, Kigyo Keiretsu Saran, 1977. 2. TYPES OF GROUP AFFILIATION IN JAPAN Types of group affiliation can be classified using criteria as means of combination, decision making format as a group, and composition of various 2) The total value of sales of each group represents only the sum of sales of the larger firms, namely, presidents' club members. Therefore, if the sales of the smaller groups not belonging to the clubs are added, the total value of sales will be much larger. 3) Presidents' club; A regular meeting attended by presidents of member firms of a group in which leadership is taken by the presidents representing such leading firms of the group as the general trading company and/or the bank thereof. GROUP AFFILIATION AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION 27 industries. From the three criteria the groups can be classified into two types: Type A and Type B. Type A represents the Big Six groups as mentioned above; Type B the Independent Groups. A comparison of types of groups with the types of integration indicates that Type A corresponds to a mixed integration or conglomerate integration and Type B to a vertical integration. The latter is based on such a relation as exists between the seller and the buyer of raw material, so some technical relation connects the group members. Type A and Type B are different from one another concerning means of combination. Type A is characterized by intercorporate shareholdings within a group. As for Type B, generally speaking, a large part of the shares of a member firm are held one-sidedly by the giant firm, that is, the leader of the group. As to a decision making format as a group, the role is executed by its presidents' club in Type A, whereas in Type B, a decision made within a core firm has an influence on other members of the group. Type B can be called a pyramidal type group. Concerning the composition of industries, Type A consists of various industries, including city banks and trading companies as core firms, while Type B consists of interrelated industries with seller-buyer relations, consisting of neither city banks nor general trading companies. The core firm of this group is a giant 4l firm which is almost always within the main manufacturing industries • 3. THE FEATURES OF GROUPED FIRMS FROM VIEWPOINT OF SHAREHOLDINGS Table 4 shows the intercorporate shareholdings of the Big Three groups. In Mitsui Group, financial institutions are main shareholders, while manu­ facturing industries are relatively weak in the ownership of shareholders. Mitsubishi Group has the make-up resembling to that of Mitsui Group, but the shareholdings of manufacturing industries are relatively larger than in Mitsui.
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