The Foundation and Development of the Steel and Weapon Company, the Joint Venture of Japan and Britain : Involvement in the Top-management of the Japan Steel Works among the British Shareholders, Hokkaido Colliery and Steamship Co., and the Imperial Japan

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The purpose of this research is to clarify the feature of the history of the Japan Steel Works (hereafter JSW), the steel and weapon company of the joint venture by Japan and Britain before WWII, through analysing involvement in the Top-management among the British Shareholders (Vickers and Armstrongs), Hokkaido Colliery and Steamship Co., (hereafter Hokutan), and the Imperial Japanese Navy (Hereafter JJN).We showed how the JSW was established at Muroran in llokkaido in 1907, against the background of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, as the intention of not only Hokutan and the IJN, but also the British munition companies (Armstrongs in Particular). We analysed that the plan of the foundation of the JSW was changed from manufacturing pig iron to making special steel (high-grade steel) for big guns, and there were some differences of intention among Kakugoro Inoue (the Managing Director of Hokutan), Vice-Admiral Masuji Yamanouchi (one of the IJN's authorities on the technology of gun-making), and the two British munition companies.We also considered how the JSW developed during WW1 and clarified that the JSW grew rapidly in the boom of WWl and accomplished 'technology transfer' on the one hand, and the British shareholders retreated from the Board of the JSW because of coping with various kinds of difficulties in the 'Great War' on the other.And we wrote a paper in English and presented it in UK about the topic of 'A Munition-Steel Company and Anglo-Japanese relations around WW1 : Corporate Governance of the Japan Steel Works and the British Shareholders.'