実業家
Meaning in Englishindustrialist, businessman
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
実業家 (jitsugyouka) means a person involved in running, founding, or managing commercial or industrial enterprises; it denotes someone whose primary activity is practical, profit-oriented business leadership rather than academic or purely professional work. The term is used to describe individuals who take responsibility for operations, strategic decisions, financing and growth of companies or industrial concerns, and can apply to small-business founders as well as owners of large firms.
Main meanings
- An entrepreneur who starts new ventures and assumes financial risk.
- An industrialist or owner of manufacturing concerns emphasizing production and commerce.
- A business magnate or influential capitalist noted for impact on markets or industry.
- A practical business operator distinguished from career managers, consultants, or scholars.
How to use it
Common in formal and journalistic contexts such as news articles, biographies, academic discussions of economic history and company profiles; it appears in formal introductions and obituaries and is less common in casual conversation where loanwords like bijinesuman or narrower terms like kigyōka (startup founder) might be chosen instead.
Variants and close terms
- 起業家 (きぎょうか, kigyōka) — entrepreneur, emphasizes starting ventures
- 企業家 (きぎょうか, kigyōka) — enterprise founder or businessperson
- 経営者 (けいえいしゃ, keieisha) — manager or executive, emphasizes corporate management
- 実業者 (じつぎょうしゃ, jitsugyousha) — business operator, slightly more neutral/technical
- ビジネスマン (びじねすまん, bijinesuman) — businessman (loanword, casual)
- 学者 (がくしゃ, gakusha) — scholar (antonym: non-business specialist)
Composition
- 実(jitsu) — reality, truth, practical; conveys concreteness or actuality.
- 業(gyō) — work, business, industry; denotes commercial or professional activity.
- 家(ka) — expert/person associated with a field, a suffix that turns an activity into an agent.
Etymology
実(jitsu) + 業(gyō) + 家(ka) reflects formation by combining standard on-yomi readings of three kanji; phonologically the compound follows regular on-reading concatenation to yield the pronunciation jitsugyouka, with the suffix -ka functioning historically as a marker for a person associated with a field or profession.
Origin
The concept gained prominence during Japan's Meiji era industrialization (late 19th to early 20th century) when modern corporate and industrial entrepreneurs—founders of early zaibatsu and manufacturing firms—were labeled with a term distinguishing practical commercial actors from samurai, scholars, or bureaucrats; usage expanded through 20th-century economic modernization and media profiles.
Word class
noun (名詞、複合語)