JAPANESE ZAIBATSU AND KOREAN CHAEBOL.
Korea is currently a front-runner among developing nations, getting closer to the ranks of developed nations. In the process of economic growth, a few dozen big business groups, of chaebols, have emerged. The fifty largest business groups account for as much as 20 percent of Korea's gross domestic product (GDP), and the five largest business groups, such as Hyundai, Samsung, Lucky-Goldstar, Sunkyong, and Daewoo, account for as much as 10 percent of GDP (Korea Development Institute, 1982). This dominance of large business groups in the Korean economy is comparable to Japanese businesses, of which the six largest groups (Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Fuyo, Sanwa, and Daiichikanging) accounted for 16.18 percent of 1,791 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and 15.30 percent of total assets of these companies in 1983 (Hattori, 63, 1984a). The primary objective of this paper is to compare and contrast the family involvement in the companies and how it relates to ownership and management of the zaibatsu and the chaebol.
There are many different views on the definition of Japanese zaibatsu. Shigeaki Yasuoka (1985) defines zaibatsu as "a diversified business entity, invested and controlled by family members or their relatives, which exerts power strong enough to affect the national and regional economies." Meanwhile, Hidemasa Morikawa (1980) defines it as "the diversified business entity established under the exclusive interlocking ownership and control of a wealthy family or their relatives." This definition does not consider the size or influence of business as compared to Yasuoka's definition. Keiichiro Nakagawa (1969) conceptualizes zaibatsu as "a major economic entity established in a less developed country, whose fundamental social structure is based on instinctive gregarious group expressed as family, to pursue an industrialization process in face of international competition against industrialized countries.
