Kimura Takuya Starring Role in ‘The Brilliant Clan’: The Real-World Model, Sanyo Special Steel, to Disappear as It Is Absorbed

Exit After 92 Years: ‘Sanyo Special Steel’ Fully Absorbed by ‘Nippon Steel’

A major figure in the global steel market, ‘Nippon Steel’, officially announced that it will fully absorb its subsidiary ‘Sanyo Special Steel’ effective April 1 next year. With this decision, the independent corporate name of ‘Sanyo Special Steel’, which had served as one pillar of Japan’s steel industry for 92 years since its founding in 1933, will completely disappear from history.

A Turbulent Corporate Saga That Drove the Biggest Postwar Bankruptcy and Led Legal Revisions

‘Sanyo Special Steel’ is a symbolic company with an imprint that cannot be erased from Japanese economic history. After severe management difficulties caused by overly ambitious and excessive investments in production facilities, it declared bankruptcy in 1965. This was recorded as the largest bankruptcy case in Japan after the Pacific War. In particular, widespread disclosure of large-scale accounting fraud committed by the management at the time served as a pivotal catalyst for extensive revisions to the Japanese Securities and Exchange Law and the Certified Public Accountants Act.

Dramatic Rise and Fall That Became the Motive for the Bestseller ‘The Brilliant Clan’

The dramatic collapse and recovery this company went through also had a profound impact on Japanese popular culture. The key motif behind the blockbuster novel ‘The Brilliant Clan’ by literary master ‘Yamasaki Toyoko’ is precisely this incident. After that, Japan’s top star ‘Kimura Takuya’ took on the role of the ill-fated protagonist ‘Manpyo Teppei’, and the show was broadcast as a popular drama of the same name, sparking enormous public buzz.

Brutal Restructuring and a Leap as a Global Specialty Steel Leader

Having faced the fatal crisis of bankruptcy, ‘Sanyo Special Steel’ carried out tough restructuring during the 1970s and succeeded in a miraculous corporate turnaround. Even after being acquired by ‘Nippon Steel’ and integrated as a subsidiary, it maintained its name and has proven world-class competitiveness in the specialty steel segment for bearings essential to automobile parts. With this absorption merger, ‘Nippon Steel’ presented a clear vision to leap forward as an absolute leading company in the global specialty steel market by strongly pursuing the fusion of knowledge and technology accumulated by both firms.