The death of Lotte’s founder ends an era for South Korea’s chaebol

BLACK LIMOUSINES with tinted windows blocked the street outside the funeral hall of the Asan medical centre in Seoul on January 21st. Endless rows of bouquets filled the corridors, with notes of condolence signed by the great and the good of South Korean business and politics. Journalists jostled to catch a glimpse of prominent mourners in dark suits filing through the parlour to deposit a single white flower each on the coffin inside.

They were paying their respects to Shin Kyuk-ho, the founder of Lotte, South Korea’s fifth-largest chaebol (as its family-run conglomerates are known). Many may have felt that they were marking the end of an era. Mr Shin, who had died two days earlier aged 98, was the last of the major chaebol founders.