Mitsui & Co., Ltd. is a Japanese general trading company and a core member of the Mitsui Group. For much of the post-war period, Mitsui & Co. has been among the largest of the five great sogo shosha by revenue as well as profits. Mitsui & Co. was established in 1876 by transferring the staff and assets of Senshu Gaisha, a trading company, to the Mitsui Group. It became the largest textile trader in the 19th century, at a time when textiles were the backbone of Japan's economy. Around that period, the company expanded into trading raw materials, machinery, and arms, gaining significant influence both economically and politically. Deemed a key component of the pre-war regime in Japan, the company was split up as part of the dissolution of the major zaibatsu in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Several trading companies with roots tracing back to the pre-war Mitsui, most notably Daiichi Bussan Kaisha, Ltd., merged to take on the name Mitsui & Co. in 1959. Wikipedia