Yasuda Zenjiro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- In this Japanese name, the family name is Yasuda.
| Yasuda Zenjiro | |
| Born | November 25, 1838 Toyama prefecture |
|---|---|
| Died | September 28, 1921 (aged 82) |
| Known for | Yasuda zaibatsu |
Yasuda Zenjiro (安田 善次郎 Zenjirō Yasuda?, November 25, 1838—September 28, 1921) was a Japanese entrepreneur from Toyama prefecture who founded the Yasuda zaibatsu (安田財閥). He donated the Yasuda Hall (安田講堂 Yasuda Kōdō?) to the University of Tokyo.
Yasuda Zenjiro, the son of a poor samurai in Toyama prefecture, moved to Edo at the age of 17 and began working in a money changing house.[1] In 1863, he started providing tax-farming services to the Shogunate. After the Meiji Restoration, he provided the same services to the Meiji government. 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 that the government subsequently exchanged for gold. [2]
Yasuda helped establish the Third National Bank in 1876. Later, in 1880, Yasuda set up the Yasuda Bank (later the Fuji Bank) and the Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Company (later merged to form Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance). In 1893, the Yasuda zaibatsu absorbed the Tokyo Fire Insurance Company (renamed the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company).
In his later years, he donated the Yasuda Hall to the University of Tokyo and the Hibiya Kokaido hall.[1] Yasuda was assassinated in 1921 when he refused to make a financial donation to an ultra-nationalist.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Yasuda, Zenjiro (2004).
- ^ Morck, Randall; Nakamura, Masao (2004-07-14). A Frog in a Well Knows Nothing of the Ocean: A History of Corporate Ownership in Japan.
- ^ Melville, Ian (1999). Marketing in Japan. Elsevier, p. 9. ISBN 0750641452.
 |
This biographical article related to Japan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
