zaibatsu

Borrowed from Japanese 財閥(ざいばつ) (zaibatsu), coined from Middle Chinese 財 (d͡zoj, “wealth”) + 閥 (bjot, “powerful family”). Doublet of chaebol.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /zaɪˈbætsuː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /zaɪˈbɑtsu/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætsuː

zaibatsu (plural zaibatsus or zaibatsu)

2. (business, historical) A large business conglomerate founded under the Empire of Japan, generally controlled by a single family or individual.
   • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 37:

     He wondered briefly what it would be like, working all your life for one zaibatsu. Company housing, company hymn, company funeral.

   • 2018 March 31, Nina Li Coomes, “Unpacking the Fictional Japan of ‘Isle of Dogs’”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     At other points, the film suggests the motive is financial, depicting the Kobayashi clan as staging an industrial coup of sorts, like a quirky Andersonian take on the zaibatsu (a term for the family-controlled business monopolies that dominated Japan until the end of World War II).

3. (US, loosely) Any large corporation.

   Near-synonyms: megacorporation, supercorporation

• chaebol (relating to South Korea)
• keiretsu

zaibatsu

1. Rōmaji transcription of ざいばつ