| Japan Business Federation | |
| Formation: | May 2002 |
| Type: | Economic organization |
| Status: | Organization |
| Purpose: | Promote the development of the Japanese economy |
| Headquarters: | Tokyo |
| Region Served: | Japan |
| Language: | Japanese |
| Leader Title: | Chairman |
| Leader Name: | Masakazu Tokura |
| Former Name: | Keidanren, Japan Federation of Employers' Associations |
The is an economic organization founded in May 2002 by amalgamation of Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations, established 1946; name sometimes used alone as abbreviation for whole organization) and Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers' Associations, established 1948), with Nikkeiren being absorbed into Keidanren.[1] [2]
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 (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.
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]
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]
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]
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 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]
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 | Founder & Executive Chairman 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 | |
| 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[12] | Toray Industries | June 2014 – May 2018 | |
| 5 | Hiroaki Nakanishi | Hitachi | May 2018 – June 2021 | |
| 6 | Masakazu Tokura[13] | Sumitomo Chemical | June 2021–present |
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