was a Japanese entrepreneur from Toyama, Etchu Province (present-day

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 1,044,588 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...

) who founded the Yasuda zaibatsu (安田財閥). He donated the to the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

. He was a maternal great-grandfather of Yoko Ono via his adoptive son, Yasuda Zenzaburō (安田善三郎).

Early life

Yasuda Zenjirō was the son of a poor samurai and a member of the Yasuda clan in Etchu Province.Morikawa, Hidemasa. (2001)
''A History of Top Management in Japan: Managerial Enterprises and Family Enterprises,'' p. 61
Zenjirō moved to Edo at the age of 17 and began working in a money changing house.

Career

In 1863, he started providing tax-farming services to the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, he provided the same services to the new

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

. Yasuda profited from the delay between the collection of taxes and their forwarding to the government. He greatly magnified his wealth by buying up depreciated Meiji

paper money A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

that the government subsequently exchanged for

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

. Yasuda helped establish the Third National Bank in 1876. Later, in 1880, Yasuda set up the Yasuda Bank (later the

Fuji Bank The was one of Japan's major banks during the post–World War II era. It combined with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan in 2000 to form Mizuho Financial Group, and changed its name to Mizuho Corporate Bank in 2002 after t ...

, now

Mizuho Financial Group , abbreviated as MHFG, or simply called Mizuho, is a banking holding company headquartered in the Ōtemachi district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The name "" literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. Upon ...

) and the Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Company (later merged to form Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance), which he organized into a ''

zaibatsu is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signi ...

'' holding company. In 1893, the Yasuda ''zaibatsu'' absorbed the Tokyo Fire Insurance Company (renamed the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company, now

Sompo Japan Insurance , formerly NKSJ Holdings and , is a Japanese insurance company. It is the second-largest property insurance company in Japan only behind Tokio Marine, with market share of 19.3% in 2007. The “Sompo” in the company's name means in Japanese, t ...

). Yasuda was among the best financiers that Japan had; however he was not adventurous and hardly expanded the business beyond finance. Most of the industrial houses associated with Yasuda were actually those that

Asano Soichiro Asano (written: 浅野, or hiragana あさの) is a Japanese language surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Asano clan, samurai family in feudal Japan. **Asano Naganori, Important historical figure title: Takumi no Kami **Asano Na ...

(the founder of the

Asano zaibatsu Asano zaibatsu 浅野財閥, one of the major second-tier zaibatsu (Conglomerate (company), conglomerates) in Japan, was founded in 1887 by Asano Sōichirō 浅野総一郎 with support from Shibusawa Eiichi 渋沢栄一, the founder of the Shibus ...

) started, whom Yasuda trusted and provided loans to. More accurately, therefore, they belonged to

and were merely affiliated to Yasuda Zaibatsu.

Philanthropy

In his later years, he donated the Yasuda Auditorium to the

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

and the Hibiya Kokaido hall. He owned a lot of land in Tokyo. It is now used as Yasuda Garden, Yasuda Gakuen, and Doai Memorial Hospital. People love these places.

Murder

Yasuda was assassinated in 1921 by

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

lawyer Asahi Heigo because Yasuda had refused to make a financial donation to a worker's hotel.

Legacy

Yasuda’s adopted son, Yasuda Zenzaburō (安田善三郎) is the maternal grandfather of artist and singer Yoko Ono, the widow of musician

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

. Lennon, on seeing Yasuda's photograph for the first time, is alleged to have said "That's me in a former life", to which Ono replied "Don't say that. He was assassinated." Lennon was assassinated in 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yasuda, Zenjiro 1838 births 1921 deaths Japanese murder victims People murdered in Japan People from Toyama (city) People of Meiji-period Japan 19th-century Japanese businesspeople 20th-century Japanese businesspeople