Concept · Business
Chaebol
· 財閥
In plain English
A large business group, often founded and controlled by a family, operating across several industries through legally distinct affiliates. Ownership arrangements vary; new circular shareholding is restricted for groups subject to the statutory cross-shareholding regime.
Literally
Wealth clique — 財 wealth, 閥 clique or faction.
Commonly mistaken for
It is not the ordinary Korean word for a company. A firm is 회사 (hoesa); chaebol denotes a specific ownership and governance structure, and in Korean usage it often carries a critical edge the English borrowing loses. It is also not a regulatory category: the Fair Trade Commission designates 공시대상기업집단 and 상호출자제한기업집단 by asset threshold and does not use the word 재벌 at all.
Worked example: Toss enters the 2026 designation list
In its April 2026 designation briefing, the Korea Fair Trade Commission named Toss among the newly included business groups. The disclosure category covered 102 groups with assets of at least KRW 5 trillion. A narrower category, subject to cross-shareholding restrictions, covered 47 groups meeting a KRW 12 trillion threshold. The first step is to identify which statutory list a group enters; the second is to apply the obligations attached to that list. Neither designation alone determines whether its controlling owners constitute a chaebol in ordinary Korean usage. The commission classifies regulated business groups using statutory terms, whereas 재벌 has a wider historical and critical meaning.
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Korean
· ·
chaebol; chaebol reform; circular shareholding
Related
- Keiretsu — 系列
Sources
- Republic of Korea, Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, Articles 21 and 22, effective October 2, 2026
- Korea Fair Trade Commission, 2026 designation briefing, April 29, 2026, published by Government Policy Briefing
- Choi Yong-ho, 재벌, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Academy of Korean Studies, revised 2023
Review status. Sources linked and checked against primary references, 18 October 2026. Corrected 18 October 2026: definition narrowed on ownership structures.