Takaya Iwasaki

Takaya Iwasaki (born November 2, 1896, died June 2, 1983) was a Japanese industrialist. He was a member of the Mitsubishi conglomerate and descended from the Iwasaki family. The Iwasaki family traces its lineage to Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha (a investment and trading company), and Takaya played an important role within that family lineage.

Life

Takaya Iwasaki was born in Tokyo Prefecture (now Tokyo). Regarding his education, he graduated from the Elementary School attached to Tokyo Higher Normal School (now University of Tsukuba Elementary School) in 1909, and from the Middle School attached to Tokyo Higher Normal School (now University of Tsukuba Junior and Senior High School) in 1915. He then graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Tokyo Imperial University in 1921, and in 1922, he studied abroad at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

After returning to Japan in 1926, he joined Mitsubishi Shokai as a member of the Mitsubishi group. In 1943, he became chairman of Mitsubishi Gas (separate from Mitsubishi Gas Chemical today), and in 1944, he became chairman of Mitsubishi Shokai.

Following World War II, in 1947, due to the Allied dismantling policy targeting zaibatsu (large family-controlled industrial and financial conglomerates) during the wartime and post-war period, the Iwasaki family was designated as part of the zaibatsu family group. Consequently, he, along with his father Hisaya Iwasaki, his brother Hidetaka Hiyama, and his brother Tsuneji Iwasaki, resigned from all positions within the Mitsubishi group.

Later, he resumed his role as chairman of Mitsubishi Shokai in 1958 and became a counselor for the company in 1969. Furthermore, from 1967 until his death in 1983, he served as the chairman of Koiwai Farm, an enterprise involved with the family of his uncle, Yanosuke Iwasaki, who had been instrumental in its founding.

Family

Takaya Iwasaki was married to Toku (the eldest daughter of Nagano Bank President and former Governor of the Bank of Japan, Shinobu Ikeda). They had one son and one daughter. His son is Higashi Iwasaki; his daughter is the wife of Makihara Minoru, a counselor at Mitsubishi Corporation, and a former shipbuilding engineer and former president of Nagasaki Sogo University.

In terms of related relatives, there are: his father-in-law Shinobu Ikeda’s brother-in-law Urasaki Katsuo, an interior ministry bureaucrat; Urasaki Junchō, former governor of the Bank of Japan and former president of Mitsubishi Bank; and his brother Urasaki Tsutomu, who served as the Imperial Household Agency director-general. These individuals maintain connections to the Mitsubishi group and the political/business circles from the Taisho era through familial and familial-related ties.

Additionally, Takaya Iwasaki’s sister Miki married diplomat Kanzo Sawada, and after the war, she established the Elizabeth Saunders Home and authored related publications.

References

- Sato Asayasu, "Monpu: The Revival of the Old Aristocracy," Raifū Shobō, April 10, 1987, First Edition, ISBN 4-651-70032-2