was a financial conglomerate owned and managed by the

Yasuda clan The Yasuda clan was a Japanese samurai kin group in the Sengoku period and Edo period.Morikawa, Hidemasa. (2001)''A History of Top Management in Japan: Managerial Enterprises and Family Enterprises,'' p. 61 History The clan was established by Ōe ...

. One of the four major

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 ...

of Imperial Japan, it was founded by the entrepreneur

Yasuda Zenjirō was a Japanese entrepreneur from Toyama, Etchu Province (present-day Toyama Prefecture) who founded the Yasuda zaibatsu (安田財閥). He donated the to the University of Tokyo. He was a maternal great-grandfather of Yoko Ono via his adop ...

. It was dissolved at the end of World War II.

Origins

Yasuda Zenjirō moved to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

at the age of 17 and began working in a money changing house. In 1863, he started providing tax-farming services, and greatly magnified his wealth by buying up depreciated Meiji paper money that the government subsequently exchanged for gold. He quickly began to amass newly available capital, establishing the Third National Bank in 1876 and forming the Yasuda Bank (later known as 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 ...

) in 1880, the center of the Yasuda zaibatsu. Yasuda consolidated his empire in banking and finance, specializing in backing small and medium-sized traders and industrialists. In 1880, Yasuda founded the Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Company (now Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance). In 1893, the Yasuda zaibatsu absorbed the Tokyo Fire Insurance Company, later renamed the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company.

20th century

The Yasuda focus on banking was narrowed by the merger of eleven Yasuda-controlled banks into the Yasuda Bank in 1913. The post-merger bank was by far the largest of all the zaibatsu banks. Yasuda Zenjirō was assassinated in 1921 when he refused to make a financial donation to an ultra-nationalist. Zenjirō's son, Yasuda Zennosuke, assumed leadership of the zaibatsu. By 1928, the Yasuda zaibatsu was ranked behind only the

Mitsui is one of the largest '' keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industri ...

and

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

groups in total capital. In that year, the Yasuda zaibatsu encompassed 66 companies and reported total capital of ¥308 million. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Japanese government began forcing consolidation of major financial institutions. In January 1942, Hajime Yasuda, the head of the conglomerate, announced that all Yasuda family members would withdraw from related and subsidiary companies, assuming new leadership positions as board members over all zaibatsu concerns.

Dissolution

Following Japan's defeat in August 1945, Hajime Yasuda and Yasuda executives assumed a leadership role in planning for the dissolution of their own group. The "Yasuda plan" was submitted in October 1945 and stipulated that the Yasuda zaibatsu would be dissolved and that Yasuda Bank would cease to control Yasuda subsidiaries. In addition, family members and executives appointed by them would resign from all Yasuda companies. The Yasuda Plan, with some revisions, was accepted by the U.S. government in November of that year.

Present day

After the restoration of the sovereignty of Japan, employment restrictions at Yasuda affiliates were lifted from the Yasuda family, and the

Fuyo Group is a Japanese ''keiretsu'' descended from the Yasuda zaibatsu, Asano zaibatsu and Okura zaibatsu. They are major business grouping in Japan up to World War II. In 1948, Yasuda was dismantled, with its key financial arm Yasuda Bank becoming Fuj ...

was formed with

, the successor to Yasuda Bank, at the core. Although the Yasuda zaibatsu was revived as a corporate group in the form of a

keiretsu A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. In the legal sense, it is a type of informal business group that are loosely organized alliances within the social world of Japan's business community. The ''ke ...

, it was no longer controlled by Yasuda family management. Artist

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

, the wife 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 ...

, is a daughter of the

. She is the great-granddaughter of Yasuda Zenjiro.Norman, Philip (2009)
''John Lennon: The Life'', p. 470

References

External links