Wiktionary
n. A set of Japanese company with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings.
Wikipedia
A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of informal business group. The keiretsu maintained dominance over the Japanese economy for the second half of the 20th century.
The member companies own small portions of the shares in each other's companies, centered on a core bank; this system helps insulate each company from stock market fluctuations and takeover attempts, thus enabling long-term planning in innovative projects. It is a key element of the automotive industry in Japan.
Usage examples of "keiretsu".
The Keiretsu could put together a force of that magnitude on short notice, just as the Federals had.
The Keiretsu fleet emerged from tachyspace in the vicinity of Mars and proceeded Earthward at a studious clip, to take up a position equivalent to that of the Federals but a judicious distance away.
That would represent the combined strength of the First Federals and the Keiretsu, he knew.
It was amusing to see the five seniors treat the cajoling, demanding, pleading requests that arrived regularly from the combined military strength of the First Federal Federation and the Keiretsu with blithe indifference.
The Chakas had strained the limits of the technologically possible in order to arrive before the anticipated and much more powerful forces of such alliances as the Keiretsu, Victoria League, and the First Federal Federation.
All major keiretsu in Japan were either owned by or folded into a commercial bank.
We know that Japan's highspeed economic growth in the decades after the war was directed by members of the Black Blade Society within the powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the heads of the new, emerging industrial keiretsu - their new name for the old zaibatsu.
Because the individual companies within each keiretsu are totally financed by the bank, they can concentrate on market penetration, developing the best possible product, and not on shareholders' demands for short-term profitability.
What people would never consider telling to Tanzan Nangi, chairman of a major keiretsu, they would readily confide in a feed salesman, a product engineer or a metalwork foreman, someone to whom they could feel superior.