Eitaro Itoyoma - Japanese Billionaire

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. ito This work is copyrighted. ... June 4 is the 155th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (156th in leap years), with 210 days remaining. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... Tokyo (東京; Tōkyō  listen, literally eastern capital), is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu in Japan. ...

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. The National Diet of Japan (国会; Kokkai) is Japans legislature. ... Liberal Party is the name of dozens of political parties around the world. ...

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. JAL Boeing 747-400 Japan Airlines (Japanese: 日本航空 Nihon Kōkū, or JAL) is the largest airline in Asia. ...

He is also a best-selling author, with books on political and business subjects.

External links

• Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People (http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/10/2004/LIR.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&uniqueId=1UXL&datatype=Person)
• Personal website (http://www.itoyama.org/contents/index.html)