Thinkers50 Hall of Fame: Shibusawa Eiichi

SHIBUSAWA EIICHI HAS BEEN INDUCTED INTO THE THINKERS50 HALL OF FAME 2024.

In this poignant presentation, Tazuko Shibusawa offers a personal glimpse into the life and legacy of her great-great-grandfather, Shibusawa Eiichi, a pivotal figure in Japan’s modernization and economic development. 

Born in 1841 to a farming family, Shibusawa’s journey from nationalist rebel to “father of modern Japanese economy” is remarkable. A pivotal moment came during his year-long European trip in 1867-1868, where he gained insights into Western financial systems, social services, and democratic values.

Shibusawa’s contributions to Japan’s modernization were multifaceted. He helped establish over 500 businesses, including major institutions like Mizuho Bank and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He was also committed to women’s education and was one of the founders of Japan Women’s University, as well as the country’s first business school (now Hitotsubashi University).

Central to Shibusawa’s philosophy was “ethical capitalism,” emphasising the harmony between morality and economy. He believed businesses should not only pursue profits but also contribute to society’s welfare, as detailed in his book, Analects and the Abacus. His own contribution to social welfare included directing a facility for orphans and people with disabilities, a role he continued for over 50 years. A strong proponent of private diplomacy, Shibusawa was also dedicated to improving international relations, particularly with the United States, which he visited four times.

In July 2024, shortly before being inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame, Shibusawa was honoured by having his portrait chosen for the new 10,000 Yen banknote. 

WATCH IT HERE:

Full press release

Hello, my name is Tazuko Shibusawa, and I am the great-great-granddaughter of Eiichi Shibusawa, who has received the honour of being inducted into the Hall of Fame of Thinkers50. My father and I are extremely honoured and appreciative, and so I wanted to share a little bit about the life of Eiichi Shibusawa and I will be using a PowerPoint presentation.

Eiichi Shibusawa was born in 1841. My father is the great-grandson of Eiichi, and he is 99 years old today. This is a photograph of my father as a baby sitting on Eiichi’s lap. This photograph was taken in 1926. This is another photograph of my father and his great-grandfather Eiichi. My father, by the way, was born in London because his father, Keizo Shibusawa, was working for a Japanese bank in London at the time of his birth.

We are very honoured that Eiichi has been selected into the Hall of Fame of Thinkers50. It is a double celebration for us since this July, this past summer, Eiichi was selected to be on the portrait of the new 10,000 Yen banknote. This was just released in July of this year.

Eiichi is known as the father of modern Japanese economy, but we believe that he was also selected because of his deep belief in what he called the harmony of morality and economy. He believed that all businesses needed not only to make profit, but that those profits needed to be used in the interest of the public. An English term for his philosophy is also known as ethical capitalism. He was a student of the Confucian Analects, and so one of the books that he wrote was Analects and the Abacus. The Abacus is an ancient device that the Japanese used to use to calculate before the advent of electronic calculators. Analects, the combination of analects, the Confucian philosophy of morality and ethics, needed to be combined with business practices. That was Eiichi’s, one of his main philosophies in life.

Just to give you a short background about Eiichi. Eiichi was born in a farming family in the outskirts of Tokyo, and then he became a rebel. He became a real strong nationalist, and in those days, Westerners were starting to enter Japan, and he believed that Japan should not accept any foreigners coming to Japan. He became a rebel and he was plotting to set fire on a foreign encampment near Yokohama. Fortunately, this plan failed and Eiichi, through a series of coincidences, ended up working for the Shogun, the last Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu. As a retainer of the Shogun, he was sent to the Paris World Exposition to accompany the Shogun’s youngest brother, Akitake Tokugawa.

During this time, he spent about a year in Europe, and he also visited England in December 1867 for two weeks. He visited the Westminster Palace, the Times, a building, the Crystal Palace, that existed at that time and the Bank of England. And this was part of his learning about modern European society, especially the institutions. He arrived in Dover from France, and he was extremely impressed with the way the citizens of Dover welcomed the delegation from Japan, the Shogun’s brother’s delegation. The ceremony was so impressive that Eiichi mimicked the ceremonies later on when inviting foreign dignitaries to Japan, such as General Ulysses Grant, who was, at that time, the former president of the United States.

He learned a lot from the West during his stay in Europe. He learned about financial infrastructure, the stock system. In fact, he was able to make money by investing in stocks during his stay in Paris to help cover for the expenses of his stay, but also the stay of the Shogun’s brother while they were living in Paris. He learned about citizens’ involvement in social services and other institutions such as hospitals. At the time in Japan, citizens were not involved in public affairs. He was also extremely impressed with the equality and democracy of Europe at that time. He was really surprised when he saw how a banker talked on equal terms with government officials or with military personnel, because at that time, Japan was extremely hierarchical and he was very much against that. As a son of a farmer and later with his interest in business, he was extremely disturbed by the fact that businesses were seen as very low class compared to the upper echelon of the samurais. And so, he just became very, very encouraged by seeing democracy and in Europe, especially equality among people because he believed that all beings were equal.

After coming back to Japan, while he was in Europe, the government in Japan changed from the Shogunate, the Shogun system, to the emperor being the head of Japan. And so, this gave him a lot of opportunities to be initially involved in government, setting up the infrastructure, and later he left to become a private citizen to support the establishment of many businesses. He was involved with establishing over 500 businesses, many that continue today like the Mizuho Bank, the Shimizu Corporation. He was also involved in establishing the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and different public works such as gas and electricity. These are some of the photographs of the original companies that he helped establish.

He was also very involved with social enterprises, social services, public welfare and education. He established organisations such as the Red Cross Medical Schools. He was also extremely committed to women’s education, and he was one of the founders of Japan Women’s University and Tokyo Jogakkan Schools for Women. He also established the first business school in Japan, which is now Hitotsubashi University, and had a lectureship at Tokyo University on Business, which again was very new since, at that time, business in Japan was seen as something that was a lower class or not as important as the Samurai class at that time. But because the Samurai class had been dismantled during the major restoration, there were a lot of opportunities for Eiichi to contribute to society.

Eiichi was very committed to an organisation called Tokyo Yoikuin which was a facility for orphans and people with disabilities and others in need, and he served as the director of this facility for over 50 years. This says that he was just as committed to social welfare, social services, as he was to business and management.

Eiichi was also a strong proponent of private diplomacy. As a private citizen, he tried to contribute to international relations. This is a picture with him and Tagore, Tagore who visited in 1929.

As you may know, the tensions between Japan and the US continued to increase as Japan became more modernised and Japan started to expand into Korea and China. Eiichi was very aware of these tensions. And so, he visited the US four times from the time that he was 62 and his last visit was when he was 81, and each time he met with presidents of the United States. At the time, anti-Japanese sentiment was very strong. When he first went to the US in 1902, Eiichi was shocked to see a sign in San Francisco saying that Japanese immigrants were prohibited from swimming in public pools. And so, he really believed that as a private citizen, it was his duty to work to improve US-Japan relations.

At the time, Eiichi also had extreme respect for US philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie, who had built extreme wealth and yet contributed most of his wealth to the public good. He felt that by getting to know businessmen in the US who were also involved with philanthropy, that they could somehow enhance understanding between Japan and the US, and he even invited them to Japan to improve relations. Unfortunately, things did not improve, and Japan ended up in World War II. Eiichi, by the time World War II happened, had passed away. I think he would’ve been very discouraged, had he been alive, to see what happened to all his efforts of improving relationships between Japan and the US and the world at that time.

Eiichi lived a very long life. He died when he was 91 years old. One of the last things he said was, “Only the chrysanthemum retains its fragrance late into the season.” He named a small guest house that was given to him by the Shimizu Corporation when he was 70 years old, and he called it the Villa of Chrysanthemums in Late Bloom because he really believed that there was still much work for him to do even after he retired from business. He continued to work for social and public projects as well as private diplomacy until the day that he died.

Again, my father and I are extremely grateful to Thinkers50 for inducting Eiichi Shibusawa into the Hall of Fame. I hope that this short presentation has given you an idea of the life of Eiichi Shibusawa, and I will stop here. Thank you very much.