The story
Founded by Shibusawa Eiichi and Ōkura Kihachirō on Dec 14, 1887.1
On November 28, 1887, Kihachiro Okura and Eiichi Shibusawa submitted an application to form a new company called Yugen Sekinin Tokyo Hoteru (Tokyo Hotel Co.), in order to "build a large hotel in Tokyo and to conduct the business of renting rooms to foreign guests, and for parties and other events..." There were initially 21 investors, with the largest (21.15%) being the Imperial Household Ministry. Site preparation for the first Imperial Hotel started in July 1888, and construction began in the fall of that year. On 7 July 1890, with the hotel almost complete, the name was changed to Yugen Sekinen Teikoku Hoteru Kaisha (Imperial Hotel Ltd.).
On January 25, 1907, the Kabushiki Kaisha Hoteru Metropole (Hotel Metropole Ltd.) merged with the Teikoku Hoteru Kabushiki Kaisha (Imperial Hotel Ltd.) and the combined company name was changed to Kabushiki Kaisha Teikoku Hoteru (still Imperial Hotel Ltd. when translated to English).
From Wikipedia’s article on Imperial Hotel (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4