21 Facts About Furukawa Ichibei

Furukawa Ichibei was a Japanese businessman who founded one of the fifteen largest industrial conglomerates in Japan, specializing in electrical goods, chemicals and metals.

Furukawa Ichibei bought the Ashio copper mine from the Japanese government in 1877, which he later organized, with his other holdings, into an industrial conglomerate called the Furukawa zaibatsu, one of the most important in Japan.

Furukawa Ichibei's parents were lower middle-class and could not afford to give him a higher education.

Furukawa Ichibei was adopted by an eccentric man named Furukawa Tarozaemon, who gave his adopted son some schooling in business.

Furukawa Ichibei made large profits in the raw silk trade, exporting his stock for foreign consumption.

Furukawa Ichibei did well in the rice trade, while suffering severe losses at times - an early example of the vicissitudes of commodities trading.

In spite of his successes in commerce, Furukawa Ichibei felt the need to be directly involved with the working man.

Furukawa Ichibei yearned to be a captain of industry, desirous of expanding employment opportunities for his compatriots, as unemployment was a serious problem in Japan.

Furukawa Ichibei had aspirations similar to a few pioneering industrialists in the West who wished to improve the lot of the working man and to expand the demand for his services.

Furukawa Ichibei had benevolent ideas on raising the standard of living for the working classes, espousing methods of making provision for old age, and suitable foundations to help toward that end.

Furukawa Ichibei bought out a failing copper mine and as he found mining to his liking, he bought another after a while.

Furukawa Ichibei's purchase was laughed at by a few of the initiated and not even his own miners encouraged him in the venture.

Furukawa Ichibei used the great wealth he accumulated to establish his ideal industrial city in the mountains of Ashio.

Furukawa Ichibei built better homes for the miners, he installed schools for the young, he endowed hospitals, he built roads throughout the district, he provided instructive amusements for the working men, which was an unheard of thing in Japan at the time.

Furukawa Ichibei lived among the miners so far as the outside demands of his business would permit; when away from them he was nothing more than a plain citizen of Tokyo.

Furukawa Ichibei bought ten more mines of coal and of copper, in different districts of Japan.

Furukawa Ichibei had in mind great plans to open mines in China, cut short by his death.

Furukawa Ichibei refused to listen to the remonstrances of his friends and relatives, and remained busy, and with his usual amazing success, until the end.

Furukawa Ichibei first introduced machinery in the sericulture of Japan, thereby extending the production of silk.

Furukawa Ichibei preceded all others in the use of electric lights and power in his coal mines and he established the first coke ovens in Japan.

Furukawa Ichibei eagerly adopted all modern improvements, and was a good customer for American inventors and manufacturers.