Hikoyata Iwasaki

Hikoya Iwasaki (September 15, 1895 – September 8, 1967) was a Japanese businessman and a member of the Iwasaki family of the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu. He was a former president of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha (Mitsubishi Joint-Stock Company) and the eldest son of Hisaya Iwasaki.

Life

He was born in Tokyo Prefecture (present-day Tokyo). In 1908, he graduated from the Primary School attached to the Tokyo Higher Normal School, and in 1913, from the Middle School attached to the Tokyo Higher Normal School (now the University of Tsukuba Middle and High School). After attending the former Gakushuin High School, he graduated in 1920 from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Letters, Tokyo Imperial University. He pursued graduate studies but then studied abroad in the United Kingdom in 1922. After returning to Japan, he joined Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha in 1926 and was appointed vice president in 1934. He also served as a director of companies under the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu conglomerate.

Prewar, he was consistently listed among the top wealthy individuals in the "Zenchō" (wealthiest) rankings, and in 1939, his declared tax payments reached a record of 2,282,076 yen, the highest in Japan. That same year, he was hailed as the largest prewar taxpayer,称 as the "Yokozuna of the West" (the "Yokozuna" of the East being Takao Mitsui of the Mitsui Zaibatsu).

After World War II, in 1947, under the Allied occupation’s zaibatsu dissolution policies, he was removed from the zaibatsu family and resigned from all official positions alongside his father Hisaya, his brothers Takumiya and Tsuneyasu. In 1953, he became a director of Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd.

In December 1945, following the death of Oyama Koji (his relative, the nephew of his grandfather Yataro Iwasaki), he was promised to succeed the position of head of Mitsubishi Main Office (the main heir). However, due to the postwar purge of officials, he had to relinquish this position to Iwao Funada, the chairman of the board. This event earned him the nickname “The Tragedy of the Mitsubishi Heir.”

Family/Relatives

His wife, Teruko, was from the Satake Azumaya family, the third daughter of Baron Satake Yoshizumi. Yoshiharu Satake (Yoshizumi’s eldest son and Hikoya’s brother-in-law) served as president of Toyo Seisakusho, a company affiliated with Mitsubishi. His father-in-law, Yoshizumi Satake, was born as the 12th Lord of the Hirado Domain in Hizen Province, and became the adopted heir of the Satake Azumaya family.

Furthermore, there are complex blood relations concerning his father-in-law and adopted heir: Yoshizumi and Iwasaki Toyoya, who was the adopted son, were connected through a marriage between their sisters, creating a close kinship. The Iwasaki and Go families also had intertwined kinship ties through marriage.

Hikoya and Teruko had one son and three daughters. Their eldest son, Hiroya, served as a director at Mitsubishi Bank and later became president of Higashiyama Agriculture, the parent company of Koiwai Dairy. Their eldest daughter, Setsuko, married Takuya Kunihiro; their second daughter, Akiko, married Yasuhiro Yamagura, an employee of Mitsubishi Corporation; and their third daughter, Michiko, married Kenji Kondo, an entrepreneur, and after working as an executive at Koiwai Dairy, she became a director of Hakuhodo, a major advertising agency.

Their grandchildren include George Kuni (an architect), Yusuki Yamagura (an employee of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical), and Yoshihiko Takashima (an executive officer at Kirin Brewery). Yoshihiko Takashima's niece married the eldest son of Masao Masuoka from the Masuoka family, establishing additional kinship ties with the Masuoka clan.

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