Concept · Business
Chaebol
· 財閥
In plain English
A large business group, typically founded and still controlled by one family, operating across many unrelated industries through circular and pyramidal shareholdings among affiliates.
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.
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Korean
· ·
chaebol; chaebol reform; circular shareholding
Related
- Keiretsu — 系列
Sources
- Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, Art. 21 (prohibition of cross-shareholding) and Art. 22 (prohibition of circular shareholding)
- Korea Fair Trade Commission, annual designation of 공시대상기업집단 and 상호출자제한기업집단
- 최용호, 「재벌」, 한국민족문화대백과사전, 한국학중앙연구원
Review status. Sources verified against primary references, 1 August 2026.