Tokai Bank

The Tokai (lit. 'East Sea', namely the Sea of Japan) Bank was established in 1941, before Japan's entry into World War II though well into the Second Sino-Japanese War. It resulted from the merger of three smaller banks of roughly equal size, namely the Ito Bank (est. 1881), Nagoya Bank (est. 1882), and Aichi Bank (est. 1896), all three based in Nagoya. The latter was itself the continuation of the Eleventh National Bank, originally established in 1877 under the system of National Banks in Meiji Japan (not to be confused with a later bank also named Aichi Bank).

After the war ended, the Tokai Bank was deemed by the Allied occupation authorities not to have contributed significantly to the war effort, and was thus permitted to keep its management and its name. In 1947 it obtained a foreign exchange license. In 1962, under new legislation, Tokai Bank separated its trust banking operations as the Chuo Trust & Banking Company. It opened offices in Tokyo and Osaka, then an office in New York in 1954, a first overseas branch in London in 1963, then converted the New York office into a branch in 1965. Additional offices were opened in the 1970s in Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Zurich, Sydney, and Singapore. By then, the Toyota Motor Corporation was Tokai Bank's most important customer and also became the bank's largest shareholder.

In 2000, Tokai Bank initially entered talks with Sanwa Bank and Asahi Bank. Asahi eventually pulled out of the negotiations, but these were expanded to Toyo Trust and Banking and eventually led to the formation of UFJ Bank in 2002.