Establishment of the State-owned Yawata Works

Abstract

The year 1901 was singularly significant for the world steel industry in that both the state-owned Yawata Works and United States Steel Corporation were established. Today, United States Steel Corporation is the second largest private steel firm in the world, while Nippon Steel Corporation (a descendant of the Yawata Works) is the largest. On 18 November 1901, when the Yawata Works officially began operation, however, few would have predicted it would reach such heights. Moreover, the establishment of the Yawata Works was not merely a matter of transporting modern iron and steel facilities from Western nations to Japan; it was the result of a half-century-long struggle. To understand its success, we must first examine the significant events that lie in its past. From its origins as Japan’s first fully modernised and integrated iron and steel works up until the present, where it reigns as the world’s largest steel producer, the state-owned Yawata Works represents a thread of continuity in the history of the Japanese iron and steel industry.KeywordsBlast FurnaceSteel IndustryCoke OvenSteel WorkOpposition PartyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.