Ryūzō Sejima

was a Japanese army officer and business leader.

Early life and military career

Sejima was born in Toyama, Japan. His father, , was an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army who served under General Maresuke Nogi during the Russo-Japanese War, and was later the mayor of the village of Matsuzawa in Nishitonami District, Toyama.

Sejima graduated from in 1938. During the Pacific War, he was as a staff officer at the Imperial Headquarters. He designed the Guadalcanal recovery strategy and the New Guinea strategy, and in July 1945 joined the Kwantung Army as a staff officer, where he negotiated Japan's cease-fire with Soviet General Aleksandr Vasilevsky.

He became a prisoner of war alongside General Otozō Yamada following Japan's surrender in 1945, and was detained for 11 years in Siberia. He was briefly flown from Vladivostok to Tokyo in 1946 to testify at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Most of Sejima's 11 years in Siberia were spent in a prison in Khabarovsk; years later, Sejima inscribed a memorial stone at the Peace Park in the city.

Business and political career

Following his return from Siberia, Sejima joined C. Itoh & Co. (now Itochu Corporation) in 1958, where he was initially engaged in its aircraft trading business. He became a director in 1962, just four years after joining the company. Sejima led the corporate planning team at C. Itoh, where he implemented military-style reporting methods and formed a group of followers within the company known as the "Sejima machine." He took charge of Itoh's expansion into the oil industry and arranged an alliance between General Motors and Isuzu in 1971. Sejima was also instrumental in Itoh's merger with Ataka & Co. In 1998, he was appointed to head a panel examining reform of the Ministry of Finance. He was also chairman of the board of Asia University and the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.

Sejima also developed a close relationship with the military rulers of South Korea during the 1980s. Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul invited Sejima to Korea in 1980 in order to advise Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo "as a fellow man of the military." Sejima acted as a go-between for Nakasone in arranging an historic meeting with Chun in 1983.

In media

Works by Sejima

Works related to Sejima The novel Fumō Chitai, which has been adapted as a film and as two television series, is said to be based on the life of Sejima, although the author stated that she only borrowed the main character's progression (from the military to a prison camp to the postwar corporate world) from Sejima's life story.

Sejima's role in Japan-Korea relations during the 1980s was depicted in the Korean television series 5th Republic.