2017 年 14 巻 p. 25-49
The Reformation of Bank and the Role of Bank’s President : A Case of Yōzō Itō, the President of the 35th Bank by Masanobu Mishina
This paper analyses the entrepreneurial activity of regional bank’s president in the situation of management reforms, focusing on the case of Yōzō Itō, the president of the 35th bank in Sizuoka prefecture from 1901 to 1904. At that time, the 35th bank ran short of the working capital caused by the loss due to immobilization and bad debts of funds for the bank’s staffs and parties. With respect to this situation, Yōzō Itō investigated the amount of the loss and the credit of the bankers, and tried to reorganize the lending system of each branch under the president. And, instead of making the largescale renewal of staffs, he employed some middle-managers, for example Isami Kogure and Kanjirō Matsuo by introduction of entrepreneurs who had graduated Keio University, Toyoji Wada and Tatsuo Yamamoto. Also, Yōzō Itō purchased stocks of Fuji-Bōseki Co. that was used as security of loan to Magoroku Adachi.
Yōzō Itō tried to write off the loss by the reduction of capital, but this plan failed by the opposition of shareholders. As a result he guitted president. From the above analysis, with pointing out the functions of the president in the regional bank in the late Meiji Era, this paper elucidated actual situation and function of the entrepreneurial activity of regional bank’s president.