The modernisation of Mitsubishi Bank

At the west exit of Tokyo station, where real estate is among the most expensive anywhere, throngs of blue-suited business-men pour out every working morning, wearing company pins emblazoned with perhaps Japan's most recognisable company logo: three diamonds. This is Mitsubishi territory. The buildings on all sides house various manifestations of Japan's biggest zaibatsu (industrial grouping). And high above it all stands Mitsubishi Bank.

It is quite a franchise. Mitsubishi these days counts as the biggest industrial grouping in the world and Mitsubishi Bank can count on some of world banking’s juiciest corporate business coming over the threshold every day. It helps to explain why, although Mitsubishi Bank has traditionally been one of the sleepier of Tokyo’s big banks, its assets of 30.5 trillion at the end of last year ranked it fifth in the world.

But, after the installation of Kazuo Ibuki as president in June 1986, the bank has stopped taking its franchise for granted.

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