Yone Suzuki

She started a peppermint factory, she bought the Kobe Steel Works, and expanded her operations in camphor manufacture, sugar refineries and flour mills.

"[7] However, she was also described as "one of the best-hated persons in the country" for taking advantage of wartime conditions and for running up the price of rice.

[8] The Suzuki conglomerate was badly affected by a foreign exchange crisis in 1923–1924, and finally failed in a financial panic in 1927.

[9] The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, dysfunctional internal dynamics, unpopular business practices,[10] and external rivalries with other large Japanese conglomerates (zaibatsu), are also cited as contributing to the Suzuki collapse.

[11] Among the present-day companies descended from Suzuki & Co. are Kobe Steel, Sojitz, and J-oilmils (Honen Corporation).