was a Japanese entrepreneur from

Toyama Toyama may refer to: Places * Toyama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on the main Honshu island * Toyama (city), the capital city of Toyama Prefecture * Toyama Station, the main station of Toyama, Toyama * Toyama Sta ...

, Etchu Province (present-day

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 993,848 (1 January 2025) 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 was a financial conglomerate owned and managed by the Yasuda clan. One of the four major zaibatsu of Imperial Japan, it was founded by the entrepreneur Yasuda Zenjirō. It was dissolved at the end of World War II. Origins Yasuda Zenjirō moved ...

(安田財閥). He donated the to the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

. He was a maternal great-grandfather of

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; 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 in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

via his daughter Teruko, and adoptive son, Yasuda Zenzaburō (安田善三郎).

Early life

Yasuda Zenjirō was the son of a poor

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

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 Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

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, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, 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 ...

. 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 Paper money, often referred to as a note or a bill (North American English), is a type of negotiable promissory note that is payable to the bearer on demand, making it a form of currency. The main types of paper money are government notes, which ...

that the government subsequently exchanged for

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

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

Fuji Bank The Yasuda Bank () from 1880 to 1948, then Fuji Bank () from 1948 to 2000, was one of the largest Japanese banks for much of the 20th century, together with Dai-Ichi Bank, Mitsubishi Bank, Mitsui Bank, and Sumitomo Bank. It was the main bank of ...

, now

Mizuho Financial Group The , known from 2000 to 2003 as Mizuho Holdings and abbreviated as MHFG or simply Mizuho, is a Japanese banking holding company headquartered in the Ōtemachi district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The group was formed in 2000-2002 by merger of Dai- ...

) and the Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Company (later merged to form

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance is a Japanese life insurance company, which is headquartered in Tokyo and created in 2004 from the merger of Meiji Life and Yasuda Life. The company is one of the oldest and largest insurers in Japan. The Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company is ...

), 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 signifi ...

'' 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). 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 ...

(the founder of the

Asano zaibatsu Asano zaibatsu 浅野財閥, one of the major second-tier zaibatsu ( 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 Shibusawa zaibatsu 渋沢� ...

) 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 is a building and clock tower at the center of the Hongō campus of the University of Tokyo. It serves as the central symbol of the campus, where special events and graduation ceremonies are held. History The building was completed in 1925 wit ...

to the

Tokyo Imperial University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public university, public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several Edo peri ...

and the Hibiya Kokaido hall. He owned a lot of land in Tokyo which was later used as Yasuda Garden, Yasuda Gakuen, and Doai Memorial Hospital.

Murder

Yasuda was assassinated in 1921 by

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

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

, 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 activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

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

References

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