The name mizuho (瑞穂) literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense.

In addition to Dai-Ichi (whose name literally means "number one"), Mizuho also incorporates several of the subsequent National Banks in Meiji Japan which were numbered in accordance with their chronological date of establishment until 1880: The group's predecessors also include Nippon Kangyo Bank (est.

[19] Initially Mizuho traded under the ticker symbol MHHD on the London Stock Exchange.

[20] Mizuho Corporate Bank focused on large corporations, financial institutions and public sector entities in Japan and overseas,[21] whereas Mizuho Bank focused on individuals and small and medium-sized companies in Japan.

[26] The initial strategy of the company was to expand its lending operations with individuals and SMEs, and begin to offer fee-based services including securitizations, merger and acquisitions support, security-based investment banking, and syndicated loans.

[24] In 2016 they opened their global transactions banking headquarters in Singapore, and have offices for this unit in China, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, and New York City.

[37] That year they also began a partnership with Cognizant, to develop block-chain methods of securing the banks private records.

[49] In September 2013, a routine regulatory control unveiled that Mizuho enabled loans of up to $1.9 million to the yakuza (Japanese mafia).

It also appeared that loans to the mob had been approved through its affiliate credit company Orient Corp.

[50][51] In December 2019, a report named Mizuho as the top private lender to coal developers between January 2017 and September 2019.

[52] In March 2020, Japanese NGO Kiko Network filed the first climate related shareholder resolution with a Japanese company proposing Mizuho align its investments with the goals of the Paris Agreement,[53] which was followed by investor support for the resolution.