The or the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Group was the largest Japanese keiretsu in the late 1990s.[1]
The group emerged after World War II and coalesced around the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. Two of DKB's largest clients, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Furukawa Electric, led their own respective corporate groups with a cross-supply relationship between the two. The Kawasaki and Furukawa groups agreed to begin holding presidents' meetings in 1966.[2] Itochu, which historically supplied Kawasaki with raw materials, became the main general trading company for the combined group.[3]
The group's presidents began regular meetings in 1971. Also in that year, the group's name developed from the merger of Dai-Ichi Bank and Nippon Kangyo Bank.[1] In 1998, an announcement was made that the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank was to be merged with Fuji Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan to form Mizuho Financial Group.[4] The resulting group, which was established in September 2000,[5] was the largest banking group in the world with assets of 140 trillion yen.[4] [6] The next few years saw a parallel consolidation of their keiretsu industrial partners[4] and saw the group grow to 150 trillion yen in assets (30% GDP).[5]