Chaebol policy for suppression of economic power concentration

The Korean word ‘chaebol’ literally means a group of individuals related by blood, who have accumulated massive wealth. Yet the word is commonly used to refer to a business group consisting of numerous big companies, owned and controlled by a person or family. A chaebol family typically owns a large portion of shares in only one or two core companies, but its control power can reach a large number of companies. One of the means for chaebols to achieve this is to acquire a so-called equity investment in affiliated companies. Given a high ratio of inside shareholding in affiliated companies, the chaebol owner exercises exclusive control rights over them. The number of chaebols grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s. Their rapid growth resulted largely from the government’s policy for economic growth. Chaebols were taken as partners by the government in implementing the Five Year Economic Development Plans.(The rest omitted)

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