The Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren, is a powerful corporate membership federation that is one of Japan’s three major economic organizations, formed in May 2002 through the merger of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (established 1946) and the Japan Federation of Employers’ Associations. According to its own description, as of 2025, the federation comprises 574 leading Japanese companies, 106 national industry associations, and regional economic organizations covering all 47 prefectures. The Federation is regarded as Japan’s most powerful business lobby, as it builds consensus among its members on policy issues — from taxation and energy to trade and labor — and channels those positions to the government through formal proposals and political engagement. Its current chairman as of April 2026 is Yoshinobu Tsutsui (筒井義信), former chairman of Nippon Life Insurance Co., who maintains a close relationship with China, regarding it as a vital economic market. In January 2026, Tsutsui stressed the need to “find an opportunity for dialogue at the economic level”  amid tensions over Chinese export restrictions on dual-use items targeting Japan.