is a trading corporation

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

 based in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It operates in many industries, including construction, forestry, plastics, chemicals, mining, petroleum, textiles, and international trade. Sojitz also participates in joint venture

Joint venture

A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

s with foreign companies in Japan.

Etymology

"Sojitz" literally means "double 日" or "the twin 日". The company was formed by the merger of two companies, both with names containing the character "日" meaning "sun" or "day":, originally . "Nichimen" is a contraction of "Nihon Menka", literally "Japan Cotton", referring to its original business of cotton importing.

The character 日 may be pronounced either "nichi" or "jitsu", with assimilation to the following consonant in words like Nisshō (日商). It is also exceptionally pronounced "ni" in Nihon ("Japan").

"Sojitz" (Sōjitsu), the "twin 日", implies a merger of equals.

History

Sojitz was formed in 2004 by the merger of and .

Current operations

In November 2010, it signed an agreement with the Australian rare earths mining company Lynas

Lynas

Lynas Corporation, Ltd. is an Australian rare earths mining company, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange as a S&P/ASX 200 company. It has two major operations: a mining and concentration plant at Mount Weld, Western Australia, and a refining facility now under construction at Kuantan,...

 to import $350 million worth of rare earth minerals from Linas's mine in Mount Weld

Mount Weld

Mount Weld is a mountain and a mine site in Western Australia, located about 30 km south of Laverton and 120 km east of Leonora. It ranks as one of the richest major rare earth deposits in the world....

, Australia.