zaibatsu

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The Word of the Day for January 29 is:

zaibatsu   \zye-BAHT-soo\   noun 
     : a powerful financial and industrial conglomerate of Japan

Example sentence:
     As owners of a zaibatsu with interests in the insurance and banking 
industries, the family's decisions had an undeniable impact on the Japanese 
economy.

Did you know?
     "Zaibatsu" is a compound formed by the Japanese words "zai," meaning 
"money" or "wealth," and "batsu," meaning "clique" or "clan." The word refers 
to one of several large capitalist enterprises that developed in Japan after 
the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and that expanded rapidly during World War I. 
Each zaibatsu was typically organized around a single family and controlled 
interests in multiple areas, such as mining, foreign trade, textiles, 
insurance, and especially banks. While zaibatsus were dissolved during the 
Allied occupation of Japan following World War II (around the time the word 
entered English), many of the individual companies that comprised them 
continued to be managed as they had been, and the term has survived.




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