Sanko Kabusiki Kaisya LTD. and Daiken Co., LTD. Era
As the business performance of Marubeni Shoten LTD., C. Itoh & Co., LTD., and others recovered, the move to unify all of the Ito family business strengthened, so in September 1941, the three companies of Kishimoto Shoten LTD., a steel trading company for which Chubei Itoh served as an officer, Marubeni Shoten LTD. and C. Itoh & Co., LTD., where merged to form Sanko Kabusiki Kaisya LTD. Soon after, however, the Pacific Theater of World War II erupted and brought strong economic regulation, which made conducting company activities difficult and limited trading to China and Southeast Asia.
In September 1944, the three companies of Sanko Kabusiki Kaisya LTD., Daido Boeki Kaisha LTD. and Kureha Cotton Spinning Co., LTD., which was established by Chubei Itoh were merged to form Daiken Co., LTD. It has 103 affiliated companies inside and outside of Japan, and the Production Division alone was involved in 16 different major company groups, and the Commercial Division handled shipping and delivery of textiles, heavy industry and chemical industry products, grains, fertilizer, etc., and also provided materials to the military. The war ended soon after, however, and the company lost all of its overseas assets.
When the war ended in 1945, Daiken Co., LTD. had more than 5,000 employees. Of these, approximately 2,200 were military personnel or were involved in military work, and approximately 1,000 people were in China and Southeast Asia. These people were brought back to Japan after the war, but many of them had to be laid off due to the economic recession in Japan.
In February 1948, Daiken Co., LTD. was designated as being subject to the Law for Elimination of Excessive Concentrations of Economic Power, which was part of the measures to break up the zaibatsu (large holding companies) and was divided into the four companies of Marubeni Co., LTD., C. Itoh & Co., LTD., Kureha Cotton Spinning Co., LTD. and Amagasaki Nail Work LTD.
