ITOCHU s founder, Chubei Itoh, began his business operations with flax. (Foundation of ITOCHU Corporation).

When Chubei Itoh was 15 years old, he began trading flax as an itinerant merchant, traveling to Osaka and Kishu. The following year, he traveled to Nagasaki via Okayama, Hiroshima, and Shimonoseki. At that time, Japan signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with five countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the Netherlands, which marked the beginning of an era of free trade. The sight of foreigners, warships, and foreign trading posts surprised Chubei and aroused his curiosity. He became convinced of the unlimited potential of trade.

¿What is itinerant trade?
Itinerant trade consists of door-to-door wholesale sales. It was a style of business that involved regularly traveling to familiar places (commercial areas) in different regions. Merchants from Ohmi adopted a business style in which they brought products from their area and the Kansai district to local regions, and purchased products from local regions to sell in the Kansai area. Chubei carried sample catalogs to take orders and, using express delivery services, transported the products to inns located in the area where the customers were and sold them there.

Chubei Itoh establishes the curtain shop. “Benchu” in Osaka.

Chubei opened Benchu, a fabric store in Honmachi 2-chome, Higashi-ku, Osaka, east of Nakahashisuji. Benchu mainly sold linen and fabrics from the Bino and Kanto regions. At that time, the Fushimi-machi area was the center of fabric wholesalers, while Honmachi attracted many secondhand clothing merchants. Despite this, when choosing the location for his business in Osaka, Chubei Itoh opted for Honmachi, anticipating the future development of the area. It is said that he chose Honmachi because it was accessible by road from Kawaguchi-cho, where ships could dock, and because the cost of land was less than half that of Fushimi-machi.
Once Benchu opened its doors, Chubei drafted a set of statutes. In them, he established the rights and duties of his workers, something unique at the time, in order to ensure that all of them, including the youngest, could work to the best of their abilities. The important spirit that permeated Chubei Itoh Is management style was his commitment to training his staff. Based on his trust in his workers, he boldly promoted the most competent ones and adopted a management system based on meetings, which could be considered a democratization of management.

Chubei Itoh establishes Itoh Itomise (a yarn and wool store), which is the origin of ITOCHU.

Chubei opened Itoh Itomise, a wholesale cotton yarn store, in Azuchi-cho 2-chome, Higashi-ku, Osaka. Under the leadership of Chubei Itoh I, the general manager, the store started with ten employees, including a deputy general manager, a manager, and an assistant manager. Itoh Itomise adopted a number of management systems that were revolutionary at the time, such as codifying the distribution of profits among three stakeholders, introducing Western accounting, and publishing Jitsugyo, a monthly business magazine (which became a leading magazine in the textile industry and some copies of which were sold to the public). Thanks to these initiatives, Chubei developed a foundation of mutual trust between the store manager and the workers and achieved efficient management.
The store became the basis of the operations that ITOCHU Corporation has since built.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of its founding, the company inaugurates the new C. Itoh headquarters building in Osaka.

On April 25, 1969, the ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of ITOCHU s founding was held in the conference room on the 13th floor. The corporate anthem, “Cover the World,” was performed, and the corporate slogan, “C. Itoh covers the world,” and corporate motto, “Idea and Challenge,” were announced.

The Chinese government welcomes C. Itoh as a friendly trading company, the first such recognition given to a Japanese company. sogo shosha.

ITOCHU Corporation entered a period of growth in the 1970s. The company s long-held vision of “Improving non-textile businesses: diversification” finally became a reality, and it rapidly expanded its operations as a general trading company. ITOCHU Corporation was the first general trading company to establish business relations with China. On December 14, 1971, it publicly announced that it would comply with the “Four Conditions for Trade between Japan and China,” and then created a section within the company dedicated to China and launched initiatives to actively promote trade. When a mission led by then-President Echigo visited China in March 1972, ITOCHU was officially recognized as a friendly trading company by the Chinese government and continued to play an important role in promoting friendship and trade between Japan and China. Shortly after this designation, on September 29, 1972, Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka achieved the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China.

The ITOCHU Foundation was established to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the company s rebirth after World War II.

ITOCHU Corporation established the ITOCHU Foundation to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its postwar rebirth, launching social action programs to promote the healthy development of young people.

The implementation of ITOCHU s new CI program led to a new expression of the official corporate ideals, the adoption of the current English name, and the creation of a new corporate logo.

ITOCHU Corporation s new English name and official corporate ideals were announced on June 1, 1992. Prior to this, with the participation of all employees, the New CI program was conducted for one year to determine a corporate name and philosophy suitable for a diversified international company. As a result, ITOCHU Corporation was selected as the English name for the company, while the Japanese name remained unchanged. The company also established «The ITOCHU Creed» and «ITOCHU Way" as its corporate philosophy, focusing on «ITOCHU committed to global good». On October 1, new corporate symbols were also unveiled, including a new corporate logo.

The system of division by companies is introduced.
ITOCHU becomes the first sogo shosha to obtain ISO 14001 environmental certification.

With the diversification of ITOCHU s operations in Japan and overseas and rapid changes in the management environment, the company recognized the need to adopt a more autonomous management approach, enabling greater agility through the delegation of authority and responsibility to its divisions. The concept of developing a “divisional company” system was created. Consequently, a review committee was established in 1995, and the system was adopted in fiscal 1997. The main objectives of the system were, first, to create an optimal management system with independent management by divisional companies (creating a system tailored to the characteristics of the companies, enabling rapid decision-making through bold decentralization of authority, and building a more sophisticated management system based on performance and consolidated balance sheets); second, to establish a small and efficient headquarters; and third, to achieve the minimum necessary control in line with the decentralization of authority. With the adoption of this new approach, ITOCHU sought to strengthen its performance and operations while bolstering its profits.