Sumitomo

Sumitomo Corporation engages in general trading business worldwide. It operates through six segments: Metal Products; Transportation & Construction Systems; Infrastructure; Media & Digital; Living Related & Real Estate; and Mineral Resources, Energy, Chemical & Electronics. The company provides steel sheets and tubular products; and manufactures, leases, sells, services, and finances ships, aircrafts, motor vehicles, construction equipment, and components and parts. It is also involved in the development of renewable energy projects comprising power generation and power plant engineering, procurement, and construction activities; electricity retail; industrial facilities and equipment, water, transportation systems and infrastructure, airports, smart city project, environmental solutions, and storage battery businesses; development and operation of industrial parks; arranging insurance; and provision of logistics services. In addition, the company engages in the cable television, 5G related technologies, programming distribution, movies, digital media and video content, TV shopping, and e-commerce businesses; cell phone, ICT platform, digital solution, and venture capital businesses; provision of smart communications infrastructure; operation of food supermarkets and drugstore chains; trade of cement and building materials; and real estate businesses. Further, it develops and trades in coal, iron ore, manganese, uranium, non-ferrous and precious metals, petroleum, natural gas and liquefied natural gas, and commodity derivative transactions; trades in non-ferrous metal products, liquefied petroleum gas, storage batteries, carbon products, plastics, organic and inorganic chemicals, silicon wafers, LEDs, pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, household insecticides, fertilizers, and veterinary drugs; engages in the investing activities; and provides electronics manufacturing services. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

The Sumitomo Group traces its roots to a bookshop in Kyoto founded circa 1615 by Masatomo Sumitomo, a former Buddhist monk. Even today management of the group is guided by his "Founder's Precepts", written in the 17th century.Copper refining made the company famous. Riemon Soga, Masatomo Sumitomo's brother-in-law, learned Western methods of copper refining. In 1590 he established a smelting business, Izumiya, literally meaning "spring shop". Riemon perfected techniques that allowed the extraction of silver from copper ore, something Japanese technology had not previously accomplished.The smelting and smithing business was moved from Kyoto to Osaka by the late 17th century. Soga passed control of the company to his son Tomomochi who managed its transformation into a major trading house during the Edo period. Sumitomo began to export copper, import silk, and provide financial services. By 1691, copper mining had been added to the portfolio.

The Meiji Restoration allowed Sumitomo to import and utilize Western machines and techniques in its mines. Sumitomo soon branched out into even more business areas entering the machine and coal industries, as well as the forestry, banking and warehousing businesses becoming a zaibatsu, or business conglomerate.

After World War II, the Japanese zaibatsu conglomerates, including Sumitomo, were dissolved by the GHQ and the Japanese government. The group reformed as a keiretsu, a group of independent companies organized around The Sumitomo Bank and bound together by cross shareholding.

Many companies continue to use the word Sumitomo in their corporate names. Most of them are managed independently and listed at Tokyo Stock Exchange and other stock exchanges with highly dispersed shareholders. For some, the name only shows their historic origin, and they are no longer considered part of the Sumitomo Group.

The diamond-shaped igeta mark is reminiscent of a type of frame placed over a well in premodern Japan and was the logo of Riemon Soga's Izumiya company.

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