ITOCHU International history

By 1919 the trading division had grown to twice the size of its parent company, and foreign offices had been established in New York, Calcutta, Manila, and four cities in China.

Like most economies that experience strong economic reversals during periods of rapid expansion, Japan entered a serious recession in 1920 which adversely affected consumer demand.

1921: Serious recession leads C. Itoh deeply into debt; it is forced to restructure and is renamed the Marubeni Company; Daido Trading is created from a division of C. Itoh Trading.

In 1941, Sanko Kabushiki Kaisha, Ltd. was established by merging of C. Itoh & Co., Marubeni Shoten Ltd., and Kishimoto Shoten Ltd.

In 1944, Sanko merged with Daido Boeki Kaisha, Ltd. and Kureha Cotton Spinning Co., Ltd. to form Daiken Co., Ltd.

In 1949, Daiken Co., Ltd., a company created from the merger of trading and manufacturing firms during World War II, was separated into C. Itoh & Co., Ltd., Kureha Cotton Spinning Co., Ltd., Marubeni Co., Ltd., and Amagasaki Nail Works, Ltd.

In 1950, Itoh was listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In January 1952, C. Itoh & Co., (America) Inc. was established under New York State Law as ITOCHU’s first overseas subsidiary, and included the San Francisco and Portland Offices in its jurisdiction.

In January 1952, C. Itoh & Co., (America) Inc. was established under New York State Law as ITOCHU’s first overseas subsidiary, and included the San Francisco and Portland Offices in its jurisdiction. It was in December 1953 that international telex, a vital facility for a sogo shosha, was set up and eventually became possible for the Tokyo Head Office to send telexes directly to the New York and San Francisco Offices via telephone.

1967 245 park Avenue where C. Itoh & Co., (America) Inc.was located

On April 25, 1969, the 100th anniversary ceremony of ITOCHU's founding was held at the conference room on the 13th floor.

It publicly announced that it would comply with the “Four Japan-China trading conditions” on December 14, 1971, and then established a section within the company dedicated to China and began initiatives to actively promote trade.

Echigo visited China in March 1972, ITOCHU was officially recognized as a friendly trading company by the Chinese government, and continued to play significant roles in promoting friendship and trade between Japan and China.

When OPEC countries forced a dramatic increase in the price of oil in 1973, oil-dependent countries such as Japan found themselves seriously vulnerable to inflation and interruptions of supply.

When the merger was affected on October 1, 1977, C. Itoh & Company moved from being the fourth to the third largest Japanese trading firm.

1985: Company takes 40 percent stake in new joint venture, Japan Communications Satellite Co.

As a byproduct of the stagnation of their core trading activities, nearly all of the sogo shosha had diversified aggressively into financial investments during the speculative bubble, which reached its peak in 1988-89.

In 1991 Itoh and Toshiba Corporation each contributed US$500 million to gain a combined 12.5 percent stake in Time Warner Inc.'s movie, television, and cable TV businesses.

At the time of the name change, ITOCHU had held the position as the largest of the sogo shosha for several years; consolidated sales for the year ending in March 1992 stood at ¥20.6 trillion (US$154 billion).

1994: Company writes off US$662 million in nonperforming assets in aftermath of the bursting of the Japanese bubble economy.

In late 1997, then, ITOCHU continued to restructure with the disposal or writing off of ¥230 billion (US$1.8 billion) in bad loans and nonperforming assets.

IAAI, a wholly owned company by ITOCHU Corporation, began operations in 1999, with 23 subsidiaries and affiliates.

In another streamlining move, the company's board of directors would be reduced from 45 members to between ten and 15. It was difficult to predict whether the Global-2000 program would position ITOCHU to profitably succeed in the more highly competitive, deregulated environment of the early 21st century.

In addition, consolidated subsidiaries would be reduced by about one-third by March 2001, with a goal of increasing the portion of profitable subsidiaries from about 60 percent to 80 percent.

The Company launches its new medium-term management plan “Frontier—2006: A Shift to Aggressive Business and Enhancement of Solid Management.” The Company's consolidated net income exceeds 100 billion yen.

The Company launches its new medium-term management plan “Frontier+ 2008: Enhancing Corporate Value on the World Stage.”

The Company launches its new medium-term management plan “Frontiere 2010: Enhancing Corporate Value on the World Stage, Shaping the Future.” The Company announces the ITOCHU Mission, Values & 5 self-tests.

The Company launches its new medium-term management plan “Brand-new Deal 2012: Earn, Cut, Prevent” The Company Invests in Drummond Company Colombian Mines The Company relocated its Osaka Head Office to Osaka Station City （Umeda)

The Company launches its new medium-term management plan “Brand-new Deal 2014: Aiming to be the number one trading company in non-resource sectors”

Strategic alliance and capital participation with CITIC Limited (China) and Charoen Pokphand Group Company Limited (Thailand) The Company launches its new medium-term management plan “Brand-new Deal 2017 : Challenge”

ITOCHU International celebrates its 100th Anniversary in 2018 !