第一劝业银行

　　Dai-Ichi Bank第一银行

　　The Dai-Ichi Bank, Ltd. (株式会社第一銀行, Kabushiki-gaisha Dai'ichi Ginkō?), originally Dai-Ichi Kokuritsu Bank (lit. First National Bank) was literally the first bank and the first joint stock company ever to be established in Japan. Established by an industrialist Shibusawa Eiichi in 1873, it was originally empowered to issue banknotes, until the Bank of Japan assumed this function in 1883. Subsequently, it became a purely commercial bank based in Tokyo.

　　In 1884 Dai-Ichi Bank made a deal with the Joseon Dynasty to make Dai-Ichi Bank Korea Branch the monopoly agent of tariff management for Choson. In subsequent years Dai-Ichi began issuing banknotes called “Dai-Ichi Bank Token” in Korea, and became the central bank of Korea virtually. Following the Japan-Korea Protectorate Treaty of 1904, however, Dai-Ichi was deprived of its central banking in Korea by Japanese government, because the government official made an issue of Dai-ichi, mere commercial bank, being the central bank.

　　In 1943 Dai-Ichi Bank and Mitsui Bank, a Mitsui zaibatsu company, merged to form Teikoku Bank (lit. Imperial Bank of Japan). Teikoku Bank was the largest bank in Japan in terms of assets when it was inaugurated. Teikoku Bank, however, couldn't expand its business freely owing to Japan being at World War II. Furthermore, former Dai-Ichi employees and Mitsui employees didn't get along well together because of the difference of the two banks' cororate culture. As a result, worsening its business performance, Teikoku Bank were divided into two banks, the new Dai-Ichi Bank and the new Teikoku Bank in 1948.

　　The Nippon Kangyo Bank, Ltd. (株式会社日本劝业银行, Kabushiki-gaisha Nippon Kangyō Ginkō?, lit. Japan Bank for Encouragement of Industry) was founded in 1897 as a governmental institution providing long-term light industrial and agricultural loans under the Nippon Kangyo Bank Act of 1896. The Industrial Bank of Japan was also founded in 1902, providing long-term heavy industrial loans. Nippon Kangyo Bank had offices only in Tokyo and Osaka, leaving nationwide local services in the charge of its subsidiary Noko Bank (lit. Agricultural and Industrial Bank). Noko Banks were established in each prefecture, except for Hokkaidō (see Hokkaido Takushoku Bank).

　　DKB executives worried about recurrence of the problem in Teikoku Bank period that former two banks' employees were on bad terms each other. Therefore they were particular about “a merger of equals”. DKB's board of directors, for example, was always composed half-and-half of former Dai-Ichi members and former NKB members. The board of directors installed the former two banks members alternately as the next chairman and president.

　　These practices, however, backfired, but only caused difficulty among the employees that was similar to Teikoku's case. Irrational personnel affairs prevented DKB from growing profitable revenue. Although DKB had higher assets than any other Japanese banks, its capability was inferior to that of high-ranking banks such as Fuji, Sumitomo, Sanwa or Mitsubishi.

　　Scandal丑闻

　　In the later 1980s, the Japanese asset price bubble comes, and Japanese banks granted increasingly risky loans, not excepting DKB. What was worse, DKB financed not only risky companies but also Yakuza, crime organizations, in order to invest in capital resources much more easily than its competitors. Above all, loan to Sōkaiya amounted to 30 billion JPY.

　　After the bubble's collapse, the bad loan was judged to be poor value for money. A raid by Tokyo prosecutors in 1997 impeaching of Sokaiya loan laid DKB open to public criticism. Kuniji Miyazaki (宮崎 邦次, Miyazaki Kuniji?, 1930 - 1997), former president and the then chairman of DKB, who faced severe pressure over a series of alleged misdeeds, committed suicide by hanging himself at his home.