ABSTRACT
While the House of Mitsui was an old merchant house modernised after the Restoration, the Mitsubishi Company started as a new enterprise. But both these zaibatsu owed their phenomenal growth to a combination of personal ability, chances given by the specific economic conditions, and last, but not least, to heavy-handed favours bestowed upon them by the government. Indeed, these two zaibatsu are prime examples of seishō.
