Origins
Yasuda ZenjirÅ moved to Edo 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) 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.
Read more about this topic: Yasuda Zaibatsu
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
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—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
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