Eitaro Itoyama |
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Eitaro Itoyama born June 4, 1943 in Tokyo, Japan is one of Japan's wealthiest citizens with a fortune estimated to exceed $4 billion. He is a controversial figure in Japanese political and commercial life due to his flamboyant publicity seeking and alleged ties with organized crime.
He is the son-in-law of reputed gangster Ryoichi Sasakawa, a convicted war criminal who became wealthy after the War through promoting illegal betting on speedboat races. He is believed to own as many as fifty golf courses in Japan and the United States. Property interests such as these comprise the bulk of his wealth.
Itoyama served four terms as a member of the Diet, the Japanese Parliament with nearly twenty years of active involvement in the ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party. In addition to political service, he is the Chairman and benefactor of an eponymous educational institution.
Unusually for a Japanese businessman, the former politician has a flamboyant and outspoken approach to business, he has publicly discussed his friendships with convicted criminals, including gangsters. Some journalists in Japan speculate that he is the link between the respectable business community and the underworld Yakuza. He does not reject the description, although once famously was stabbed in the arm by a gangster during a public speaking engagement and has publicly rebuked some aspects of organized crime, including extortion of public companies.
He is one of the largest shareholders and is a prominent investor activist within national airline JAL, publicly calling for significant changes to management and business structures, detailing his vision for change on his personal website. Corporate confrontations of this kind are highly unusual in Japan. JAL management recently moved to compromise with Itoyama by appointing him Special Adviser to the Chief Executive Officer, signalling a possible conclusion to hostilities after six years of highly public disagreement.
He is also a best-selling author, with books on political and business subjects.
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