zaibatsu

See also: Zaibatsu

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese 財閥(ざいばつ) (zaibatsu), coined from Middle Chinese 財 (d͡zoj, “wealth”) + 閥 (bjot, “powerful family”). Doublet of chaebol.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /zaɪˈbætsuː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /zaɪˈbɑtsu/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætsuː

Noun

zaibatsu (plural zaibatsus or zaibatsu)

2. (business, historical) A large business conglomerate founded under the Empire of Japan, generally controlled by a single family or individual.
   • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 37:

     He wondered briefly what it would be like, working all your life for one zaibatsu. Company housing, company hymn, company funeral.

   • 2018 March 31, Nina Li Coomes, “Unpacking the Fictional Japan of ‘Isle of Dogs’”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     At other points, the film suggests the motive is financial, depicting the Kobayashi clan as staging an industrial coup of sorts, like a quirky Andersonian take on the zaibatsu (a term for the family-controlled business monopolies that dominated Japan until the end of World War II).

3. (US, loosely) Any large corporation.

Translations

a Japanese conglomerate founded under the Empire of Japan

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 財閥／财阀 (zh) (cáifá)

• Estonian: zaibatsu (et)
• Finnish: please add this translation if you can
• French: zaibatsu (fr) m
• German: Zaibatsu n
• Japanese: 財閥 (ja) (zaibatsu)
• Korean: 재벌(財閥) (ko) (jaebeol), 자이바쓰 (jaibasseu)
• Polish: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: дзайба́цу (ru) m (dzajbácu)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

See also

• chaebol (relating to South Korea)
• keiretsu

Japanese

Romanization

zaibatsu

1. Rōmaji transcription of ざいばつ