著者

小川 功

出版者

滋賀大学経済学会

雑誌

彦根論叢 (ISSN:03875989)

巻号頁・発行日

no.387, pp.122-135, 2011

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Arinobu Fukuhara, president of TEIKOKU Life, a major life insurance company, formed a real estate syndicate with 22 close, wealthy friends in 1907 when Japan was experiencing an investment boom. Among the group were the Fukuzawa brothers, members of the founding family of Keio Universit y, a major university in Japan. This syndicate was a type of real estate fund organized to invest in tourism in the Hakone district located close to Tokyo. But it actually acted as a structured investment vehicle (SIV) for making prior acquisitions of real estate for the ODAWARA Electric Railway, of which the investors where stakeholders. It purchased vast tracts of land to be developed as a resort area in Gora in Hakone, which was to be the last stop of the planned new railway line. These purchases generated multiple benefits for the venture capitalists. They offeredprospects for diversifying the new railway business, and the investors enjoyed the proceedsfrom the land transactions and also the comfortsof owning a second house in a resort area.TEIKOU Life acted as an investment bank and managed all the various financial transactionsnecessary in a real estate business, from purchase to sale of the properties. It can be saidthat the company was the originator of a seriesof financial schemes managed by the fund. This investment fund, which specialized in tourism,not only provided the financiers with high returnsand comfortable resort living, but alsodeveloped and completed the most advanced,full-scale mountain railway system aimed atproviding transportation for tourists in Japanand a superior mountainous resort area with a private amusement park attached.