As a widow with two sons , Yone Suzuki took over her late husband 's business , the Suzuki Trading Company ( '' Suzuki Shoten '' ) , trusting manager Kaneko Naokichi with many of the strategic decisions . In 1900 , she made a fortune in a deal involving sugar , real estate , and camphor . She started a peppermint factory , she bought the Kobe Steel Works , and expanded her operations in camphor manufacture , sugar refineries and flour mills . She built a factories to produce fish oil and bean oil , owned a fleet of ships , and added branch offices of the Suzuki conglomerate in several international locations , including Europe , North America , Australia , and elsewhere in Asia . She was described in 1918 as " the wealthiest woman in Japan " , and in 1927 as the " richest woman in the world . " However , she was also described as " one of the best-hated persons in the country " for taking advantage of wartime conditions and for running up the price of rice . She had to go into hiding with an alias for a while during the rice riots of 1918 , after angry crowds burned her company 's headquarters in Kobe . The Suzuki conglomerate was badly affected by a foreign exchange crisis in 1923 – 1924 , and finally failed in a financial panic in 1927 . The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake , dysfunctional internal dynamics , unpopular business practices , and external rivalries with other large Japanese conglomerates ( '' zaibatsu '' ) , are also cited as contributing to the Suzuki collapse . Among the present-day companies descended from Suzuki & Co. are Kobe Steel and Sojitz
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
Yone Suzuki