Section 1. Post-War Reconstruction

The General Headquarters of the Allied Powers (GHQ), which had occupied Japan, initiated the dismantling of zaibatsus as part of Japan’s economic democratization. On November 24, 1945, they ordered legislative measures related to the dismantling of private conglomerates other than the huge zaibatsus, and an imperial ordinance (the Restricted Concern Act) pertaining to limits on the dissolution of companies was instituted by the government. This law restricted business transfers, dissolutions, appropriation of profits, and transfer of assets and liabilities by companies with capital of 5 million yen or more as well as companies designated by the Minister of Finance at the time. On June 4, 1946, our company was also designated as a restricted concern due to the fact that the company’s shareholders, O.S.K. Lines, Nichiden Kogyo, and Sumitomo Honsha, had been designated as holding companies.

The Restricted Concern Act declined in importance with the promulgation of the Holding Company Liquidity Committee Act on April 20, 1946, the Antimonopoly Act on April 14, 1947, and the Law for the Elimination of Excessive Concentration of Economic Power on December 18, 1947. Because of barriers to company restructuring, the Restricted Concern Order was partially revised in November 1948, and it was gradually rescinded for companies one by one in 1949. In the case of Osaka Tatemono, it was rescinded on December 8 of that year.

During that period, the company was designated a special accounting company under the Act on Emergency Measures Concerning Company Accounting, and it was also designated as being subject to the Law for the Elimination of Excessive Concentration of Economic Power, but both designations were eventually lifted, and the company was able to continue in its previous form.