Tokyo Tomin Bank (株式会社東京都民銀行, The Tokyo Tomin Bank, Limited) was a regional bank headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, founded in December 1951 as a bank for small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals.[1] The bank operated under the Tokyo TY Financial Group before merging with Yachiyo Bank and Shin Ginko Tokyo on May 1, 2018, to form Kiraboshi Bank.[2]
Design and History
Tokyo Tomin Bank adopted its corporate identity in 1978, when it introduced a logo mark designed by Shigeo Fukuda (福田繁雄), the renowned Japanese graphic designer known for his minimalist poster art and optical illusions.[3] The bank also established a “warm green” base color intended to convey calmness and new growth as part of the same CI program.[3]
Fukuda’s mark combined the kanji character “人” (person) with the bank’s initial “T,” forming an arrow-like shape that symbolized exchange and connection.[3] The bank’s own materials described this as the “symbol of empathy,” explaining that the “person” at the core of community banking and the “T” of Tokyo Tomin Bank intersect and unite to form the shape of an arrow representing exchange.[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The bank’s official description of its mark emphasized warm human contact: “The feelings we put into this mark are the warm interactions between people.”[1] The “person” character and the “T” were described as coming together to form an arrow, representing the bank’s role in facilitating connection and exchange within its community.[4]
In the lead-up to the 2018 merger, the Tokyo TY Financial Group introduced a new logo mark for the combined entity. This mark also used the “人” kanji as its motif, with a colorful palette intended to express the vitality of the Tokyo metropolitan area, its people, streets and businesses, and to convey the image of the two banks and their customers moving forward together into the future.[5]
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