Zenjiro Yasuda
| Yasuda Zenjirō | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
November 25, 1838 Toyama, Toyama |
| Died | September 28, 1921 (aged 82) Ōiso, Kanagawa |
| Nationality |
 Japanese
|
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Yasuda zaibatsu |
Yasuda Zenjirō (安田 善次郎?, November 25, 1838 – September 28, 1921) was a Japanese entrepreneur from Toyama, Etchu Province (present-day Toyama Prefecture) who founded the Yasuda zaibatsu (安田財閥). He donated the Yasuda Auditorium (安田講堂 Yasuda Kōdō?) to the University of Tokyo. He was the great-grandfather of Yoko Ono.
Yasuda Zenjirō, the son of a poor samurai in Etchu Province. He was a member of the Yasuda clan.
Zenjirō moved to Edo at the age of 17 and began working in a money changing house. In 1863, he started providing tax-farming services to the Tokugawa Shogunate. After the Meiji Restoration, he provided the same services to the new 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.
Yasuda helped establish the Third National Bank in 1876. Later, in 1880, Yasuda set up the Yasuda Bank (later the Fuji Bank, now Mizuho Financial Group) and the Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Company (later merged to form Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance), which he organized into a zaibatsu 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).
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