Japan Business Federation

The Japan Business Federation (日本経済団体連合会, Nippon Keizai-dantai Rengōkai) is an economic organization founded in May 2002 by amalgamation of Keidanren (経済団体連合会, Japan Federation of Economic Organizations, established 1946; name sometimes used alone as abbreviation for whole organization) and Nikkeiren (日本経営者団体連盟, Japan Federation of Employers' Associations, established 1948), with Nikkeiren being absorbed into Keidanren.^[1][2]

Japan Business Federation

Keidanren Kaikan, the head office of Japan Business Federation
Formation	May 2002
Type	Economic organization
Legal status	Organization
Purpose	Promote the development of the Japanese economy
Headquarters	Tokyo
Coordinates	35°41′19.2″N 139°45′48.6″E
Region served	Japan
Official language	Japanese
Chairman	Masakazu Tokura
Website	www.keidanren.or.jp/en/
Formerly called	Keidanren, Japan Federation of Employers' Associations

The federation is commonly referred to as "Keidanren", its 1,601 members consist of 1,281 companies, 129 industrial associations, and 47 regional economic organizations (as of June 15, 2010).^[3]

For most of the post-war period, Keidanren has been the voice of big business in Japan and is generally considered the most conservative of the country's three major private sector led business associations. The other two organizations are the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry [ja] (日本商工会議所) and the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (経済同友会).

According to the organization's official website, the mission of the Keidanren is to: accelerate growth of Japan's and the world's economy, and to strengthen the corporations to create additional value to transform the Japanese economy into one that is sustainable and driven by the private sector by encouraging the ideas of individuals and local communities. In April 2023, the organization lobbied the Japanese government to promote the export of anime and manga, warning that Japan could lose to emerging competitors such as South Korea.^[4]

The current chairman is Masakazu Tokura of Sumitomo Chemical. He has been chairman of The Japan Business Federation since June 2021.

Political donations

Keidanren and its predecessor bodies had a long history of providing substantial political donations to the Liberal Democratic Party. In the lead-up to the 2009 general election the Democratic Party of Japan made a pledge to ban political donations from companies and organizations. After the DPJ victory in that election, Keidanren stopped making political donations.^[5][6]

View on consumption tax

Keidanren supported the Noda government's efforts to raise Japan's consumption tax from 5% to 10%. It had previously called for the consumption tax to be raised even higher, to 15%.^[7]

Views on nuclear power

After the March 11 nuclear disaster and subsequent shutdown of all the nuclear plants in Japan, Keidanren called for their restart.^[8] This view was not shared by all business leaders, with Rakuten president Hiroshi Mikitani leaving the federation partly over this issue. Masayoshi Son of Softbank publicly objected to the focus on restarting the nuclear plants, but didn't leave the federation over it.^[9]

Changes to board composition

In 2002, when Keidanren took on its current form, two-thirds of its 18 vice-chairmen were from manufacturing companies. As of July 2012, only 8 of the 18 are filled by executives of manufacturers.^[6]

Yahoo! Japan

Yahoo! Japan was a founding member of Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani's Japan e-business association in February 2010, but after Rakuten withdrew from Keidanren in June 2011 and made moves to become the Japan Association of New Economy as a rival to Keidanren, Yahoo! Japan withdrew from the e-business association in March 2012. It joined Keidanren in July 2012.^[10]

Current board

Masakazu Tokura, Chairman of Keidanren

Below are the lists of presidents, Chair, Vice-presidents and Vice-Chairs of Japan Business Federation (as of July 1, 2021).^[11]

Title	Name	Affiliation
Chair	Masakazu Tokura	chairman of the board of Sumitomo Chemical
Vice-Chair	Shuzo Sumi	Senior Executive Advisor of Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance
	Tetsuro Tomita	Chairman and Director of East Japan Railway Company
	Shinya Katanozaki	President and CEO of ANA Holdings
	Tsutomu Sugimori	Representative Director, Chairman of the board, Group CEO of ENEOS Holdings
	Kuniharu Nakamura	chairman of the board of directors of Sumitomo Corporation
	Nobuyuki Hirano	Senior Advisor of MUFG Bank
	Koichiro Watanabe	Director, chairman of the board of Dai-ichi Life
	Hiromichi Shinohara	chairman of the board of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
	Tetsuji Ohashi	chairman of the board of Komatsu Limited
	Yasuhiro Sato	Chairman of Mizuho Financial Group
	Masanobu Komoda	President and CEO of Mitsui Fudosan
	Jun Ohta	President and Group CEO of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group
	Tasuo Yasunaga	Representative Director, chairman of the board of directors of Mitsui & Co.
	Masaki Sakuyama	Chairman of Mitsubishi Electric
	Toshiaki Higashihara	Director, Representative Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Hitachi
	Eiji Hashimoto	Representative Director and President of Nippon Steel
	Kazuhiro Tsuga	chairman of the board of Panasonic Corporation
	Tomoko Namba[12]	Founder & Executive Chairwoman of DeNA
	Masakazu Kubota	President of Keidanren

Title	Name	Affiliation
Council Chair	Fumiaki Watari	Advisor of JX Holdings
Vice-chairman	Yu Nomaguchi	Honorary Adviser of Mitsubishi Electric
	Yoshiya Hara	Senior Advisor Head Office of Daiwa Securities Group
	Naotake Okubo	Board Counsel of Sekisui Chemical
	Akihiko Ide	Chairman of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation
	Tsuneji Uchida	President of Canon
	Norio Yamaguchi	Chairman of Ajinomoto
	Kazuhisa Shinoda	President of Oji Paper Company
	Go Ojita	Chairman of Asahi Group Holdings
	Ashida Akimitsu	Chairman of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines
	Kunio Ishihara	Chairman of Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.
	Kaoru Yano	Chairman of NEC
	Atsushi Kamei	President of Ito-Yokado
	Fumio Ohtsubo	President of Panasonic Corporation
	Shinzo Maeda	Chairman of Shiseido
	Susumu Kato	President of Sumitomo Corporation
	Eiza Kobayashi	Chairman of Itochu Corporation

Past officeholders

Japan Business Federation

Order	Past president	Affiliation	Tenure
1	Hiroshi Okuda	Toyota	May 2002 – May 2006
2	Mitarai Fujio	Canon	May 2006 – May 2010
3	Hiromasa Yonekura	Sumitomo Chemical	May 2010 – May 2014
4	Sadayuki Sakakibara[13]	Toray Industries	June 2014 – May 2018
5	Hiroaki Nakanishi	Hitachi	May 2018 – June 2021
6	Masakazu Tokura[12]	Sumitomo Chemical	June 2021–present

Old Business Federation Order Past chairman Affiliation Tenure 1 Ichiro Ishikawa Nissan Chemical Industries March 1948 – February 1956 2 Taizo Ishizaka Tokyo Shibaura Electric February 1956 – May 1968 3 Uemura Kōgorō Keidanren Secretariat May 1968 – May 1974 4 Toshiwo Doko Tokyo Shibaura Electric May 1974 – May 1980 5 Inayama Yoshihiro Nippon Steel May 1980 – May 1986 6 Eishiro Saito Nippon Steel May 1986 – December 1990 7 Gaishi Hiraiwa Tokyo Electric Power December 1990 – May 1994 8 Shoichiro Toyoda Toyota May 1994 – May 1998 9 Takashi Imai Nippon Steel May 1998 – May 2002

Former Japan Federation of Employers' Associations Order Past president (permanent typical secretary) Affiliation Tenure 1 Kanichi Moroi Taiheiyo Cement March 1948 – April 1968 2 Miki Takashi Yawata Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. April 1949 – April 1952 3 Kato Masato Daiwabo Co., Ltd. April 1949 – August 1963 4 Takeshi Sakurada Nisshinbo Industries April 1960 – May 1979 5 Bunpei Otsuki Mitsubishi Mining & Cement Co., Ltd. May 1979 – May 1987 6 Eiji Suzuki Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation May 1987 – May 1991 7 Ken Nagano Mitsubishi Materials May 1991 – May 1995 8 Jiro Nemoto NYK May 1995 – May 1999 9 Hiroshi Okuda Toyota May 1999 – May 2002

See also

• Chamber of commerce
• List of employer associations
• Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), a similar European business association

References

1. Japan Times Keidanren-Nikkeiren tieup scheduled for May 2002 start December 21 2000 Retrieved on July 22, 2012^{[dead link‍]}
2. "Keidanren". WBCSD. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
3. "About Nippon Keidanren". Japan Business Federation. Archived from the original on April 30, 2012. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
4. Nguyen, Joana (April 10, 2023). "Japan lobby group calls for promotion of anime, manga overseas".
5. Asahi Shimbun EDITORIAL: Political donations 2010/03/01 Retrieved on July 20, 2012
6. Nikkei Weekly Business lobbies in state of flux June 16, 2012, page 28
7. Keidanren urges gov't to raise consumption tax to 10% or higher+ Retrieved on July 20, 2012
8. "Keidanren chief renews call for restart of nuclear plants". Kyodo News. April 23, 2012. Archived from the original on April 23, 2012.
9. "Softbank's Son denounces Keidanren's energy proposal". The Asahi Shimbun. November 16, 2011. Archived from the original on November 16, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
10. "Keidanren welcomes new member Yahoo". August 1, 2012. Archived from the original on August 1, 2012.
11. Nippon Keidanren website "About Keidanren Officers of KEIDANREN". Retrieved August 8, 2021.
12. "Japan's biggest business lobby gets new chief, first female vice chair". The Japan Times. The Japan Times. June 2, 2021. Archived from the original on June 18, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
13. "Chairman Sakakibara's Statements and Comments". keidanren.or.jp. Keidanren. May 21, 2018. Retrieved March 17, 2019.

External links

• Daimon, Sayuri (June 16, 2009). "The all-powerful voice of corporate Japan". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019.
• https://www.keidanren.or.jp/en/
• http://www.keidanren-usa.org/ Archived December 5, 2006, at the Wayback Machine