# Is Lotte a Korean or a Japanese company? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 1, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108 "2004-01-01T13:13:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ce\_garcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@ce\_garcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ce_garcon)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/1 "2004-01-01T13:13:19Z")
This question has been puzzling me for a long time. Lotte Corporation has both Korean and Japanese sites, and I have seen some from some books and people that it is Korean, and others that it is Japanese. Who is lying, or misinformed? ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/2 "2004-01-01T13:26:23Z")
Their .com site is in Korean so my WAG would be that the company is Korean. ---
**Author:** ![KenGr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@KenGr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenGr)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/3 "2004-01-01T15:10:45Z")
Lotte is one of the several large Korean “chaebols” or family owned (at least originally) corporations which dominate the Korean economy. ---
**Author:** ![gbh2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8797f3/32.png) [@gbh2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gbh2000)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/4 "2011-06-05T05:24:36Z")
Lotte was established in June 1948, in Tokyo, Takeo Shigemitsu (重光武雄) In 1965, Lotte expanded into Korea with the establishment of Lotte Confectionary Co., Ltd in Seoul on April 3, 1967. The confusion may come from the fact that the founder was of Korean descent. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/5 "2011-06-05T10:35:21Z")
I had always thought of them as a Japanese company, but from [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotte_%28conglomerate%29), > [@](#): > > Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. - Lotte group’s world headquarters - are located in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is controlled by the founder Shin Kyuk-Ho’s family. > > ``` > * Lotte of Korea employs 56,369 with a revenue of 41 trillion won in 2008 and has 53 companies in South Korea > * Lotte of Japan employs 3,600 with a revenue of 448 billion yen in 2006. > > ``` > > Lotte Group’s total assets are approximately 50 billion USD (Lotte Korea $40 Billion, Lotte Japan $10 Billion). ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/6 "2011-06-07T02:02:48Z")
I’m not sure it really makes any sense these days to talk about what ‘nationality’ a multi-national corporation is. But, 株式会社ロッテ is a Japanese company. You can tell because it says Kabushiki Kaisha. 롯데그룹 is a Korean conglomerate. As others have pointed out the business was started in Tokyo by a Korean national. To some (right winger nutjobs) that means the group is “Korean”. To others, the company was founded in Japan, and that makes it Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/7 "2011-06-07T02:34:38Z")
Looking at a similar case, the Benihana restaurant chain was founded in NY in 1964, by a Japanese citizen. It now has branches in 17 different countries, but not one in Japan. Is the group a “Japanese company”? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/8 "2011-06-07T06:57:39Z")
Actually not Korean or Japanese, but … zombie. However, for the record Lotte just closed a deal to operate a big shopping center here in Jakarta starting in 2012, and the newspaper article referred to them as “Korean.” ---
**Author:** ![unattached](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/db5fbb/32.png) [@unattached](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unattached)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/9 "2015-07-31T00:24:51Z")
Lotte’s founder SHIGEMITSU Takeo was born SHIN Kyuk-Ho in Korea in 1922. He went to Japan in 1941 at the age of 19, leaving behind his pregnant wife in Korea, to make money. He soon married the niece of SHIGEMITSU Mamoru, a powerful politician who as the Japanese Foreign Minister signed the surrender document in front of General MacArthur aboard USS Missouri. [Surrender of Japan to the Allied forces aboard the USS Missouri, victims of Japan...HD Stock Footage - YouTube](https://youtu.be/AsZ0qwJSbuQ?t=30) He lost his right leg in a bombing by YUN Bong-Gil, a Korean résistance fighter. SHIN took his wife’s uncle’s last name and became SHIGEMITSU Takeo. He founded Lotte Japan in 1948 and turned it into one of the largest corporations in Japan at the time. He then founded the Korean branch in 1967. The Korean branch since has grew to surpass the Japanese branch 5 times over and it is now the 8th largest corporation in Korea. He used to travel back and forth between Japan and Korea, spending odd months in Korea and even months in Japan to run both branches until 2011. He resides in Korea now. His two sons, Hiroyuki and Akio have equal number of shares in Lotte, with Hiroyuki, the elder son, being in charge of Lotte Japan and Akio in charge of Lotte Korea, until 2015 when Hiroyuki tried to take over both branches but failed and was pushed out along with his father, by Akio. SHIGEMITSU Akio now heads both Lotte Japan and Lotte Korea. Most of his family members are Japanese but Hiroyuki and Akio, who were both born in Japan to a Japanese mother, have naturalised in Korea in recent years, possibly to maintain the family’s control over the significantly larger Korean branch. Hiroyuki speaks very little Korean while Akio has a conversational knowledge of Korean. It is not a well known fact in Japan that the founder and CEOs of Lotte are of Korean descent. SHIGEMITSU Takeo’s younger brother SHIN Chun-Ho is the founder of Nongshim, which makes Shin Ramen. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/10 "2015-07-31T21:53:53Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Actually not Korean or Japanese, but … zombie. Wow! Don’t ever get CairoCarol on your bad side- she has the ability to call future zombies against you. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-lotte-a-korean-or-a-japanese-company/222108/11 "2015-07-31T23:38:02Z")
> [@Disheavel](#): > > Wow! Don’t ever get CairoCarol on your bad side- she has the ability to call future zombies against you. It’s a double zombie.