Sojitz

Sojitz Corporation (双日株式会社) is a sogo shosha (general trading company) based in Tokyo, Japan. It is engaged in a wide range of businesses globally, including buying, selling, importing, and exporting goods, manufacturing and selling products, providing services, and planning and coordinating projects, in Japan and overseas. Sojitz also invests in various sectors and conducts financing activities. The broad range of sectors in which Sojitz operates includes automobiles, energy, mineral resources, chemicals, foodstuff resources, agricultural and forestry resources, consumer goods, and industrial parks.

Sojitz was formed in 2004 by the merger of Nissho Iwai Corporation (日商岩井株式会社) and Nichimen Corporation (ニチメン株式会社).[1] The name "Sojitz" is derived from the names of Nissho Iwai and Nichimen, both of which include the character "日" (sun). "Sojitz", literally meaning "twin suns", implies a merger of equals between the two companies. The corporate logo is a stylized version of the first character in its Japanese name.

History

Nichimen

Nissho Iwai

Nissho Iwai was formed in 1968 by the merger of Nissho Company and Iwai Sangyo Company.[4]

Nissho Company was founded in Kobe in 1902 as Suzuki & Company (ja:鈴木商店) under the leadership of Naokichi Kaneko (ja:金子直吉) when died this company's predecessor shop's founder, Iwajiro Suzuki (ja:鈴木岩治郎) (1837–1894). Suzuki was originally a sugar trading firm but later diversified into flour, steel, tobacco, beer, insurance, shipping and shipbuilding; it became the second Japanese member of the Baltic Exchange in London. Iwai & Company (ja:岩井商店) was founded as a steel trading firm in 1901 and established a number of prominent group enterprises including Daicel, Nisshin Steel, Tokuyama Soda, Kansai Paint and Fuji Photo Film. It changed its name to Iwai Sangyo Company in 1943.[4]

Both Nissho and Iwai emerged as metals and machinery trading companies after World War II but were significantly smaller than the four largest sogo shosha competitors (Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Itochu and Marubeni). Iwai was poorly managed after the war and was on the brink of failure in the early 1960s, while Nissho was profitable and successfully expanding overseas. The Japanese government directed the merger of the two companies in 1968, forming the fifth largest trading company in Japan (falling back to sixth place in 1972 behind Sumitomo Corporation).[5] Sanwa Bank played a role in the merger and the combined firm became the trading arm of the Sanwa Group keiretsu.[6]

Nissho Iwai was involved in a corruption scandal in 1979 after it passed on a 500 million yen bribe from McDonnell Douglas to the director general of the Japan Defense Agency in an attempt to influence the sale of F-4 Phantom aircraft to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. In the wake of the scandal, one Nissho Iwai executive committed suicide by jumping from the company's headquarters building. The scandal was uncovered only three years after a similar scandal involving Lockheed and Marubeni conspiring to bribe Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.[7]

In subsequent years, the company had a strong focus on liquefied natural gas and steel trading, as well as industrial project development.[5]

Current operations

Today, the Sojitz Group consists of approximately 440 subsidiaries and affiliates located in Japan and throughout the world, and it is developing its wide-ranging general trading company operations in roughly 50 countries and regions across the globe.

Sojitz (through its subsidiary Sojitz Aerospace Company) is the largest seller of commercial aircraft in Japan, as it acts as a sales agent for both Boeing and Bombardier Aerospace. It distributes Mitsubishi Motors and Hyundai Motors automobiles in various countries, and also develops and operates power plants, industrial plants in various countries. In 2013 it received an order to develop a section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor between Delhi and Mumbai in India.[8] The Sojitz Aerospace Company also acts as Sojitz's primary arm for defense related business.

Sojitz has also invested in Hyundai Nishat, the Pakistani arm of Hyundai Motors in partnership with Nishat Group.

Sojitz owns oil and natural gas concessions in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Qatar, Gabon, Egypt, and Brazil, and distributes nuclear fuel in Japan for Orano.[9]

Its operations in the chemicals sector include methanol production in Indonesia, barite mining in Mexico and industrial salt trading in various markets worldwide.[10] In November 2010, it signed an agreement with the Australian rare earths mining company Lynas to import $350 million worth of rare earth minerals from Lynas' mine in Mount Weld, Australia.[11]

Its consumer business operations include trading in grains, feed, sugar, coffee, fish, wood and paper. It owns the Japanese rights to several consumer brands such as Eastpak and McGregor.[12]

Australian investments

Sojitz Blue Pty Ltd is an Australian subsidiary of Sojitz Corporation, established in 2002.[13] Sojitz Blue acquired mining interest in the Queensland mining region at Minerva coal mine in 2005[14] (which was closed in 2021[15]), and subsequently acquired Meteor Downs South and Gregory Crinum[14] in 2019.[16]

In October 2025, Sojitz signed up to a rare earths deal struck between the United States and Australia, which includes the expansion of an Alcoa facility in Wagerup, Western Australia, to include a processing facility for gallium known as the Gallium Recovery Project.

native name	双日株式会社
native name lang	ja
romanized name	Sōjitsu kabushiki gaisha
type	Public
traded as	tyo: 2768
foundation	August 2004
location	Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
key people	Masayoshi Fujimoto (president & CEO)
industry	Conglomerate (Sogo shosha)
revenue	JP¥4,006 billion (2016)
net income	JP¥36.5 billion (2016)
num employees	14,330 (2016)
website	http://www.sojitz.com/en/

History

Nichimen

Nissho Iwai

Merger

Current operations

Australian investments

ADV Films acquisition

External links

References