IN A life of unstinting effort Yasuko Takei achieved extraordinary success — only to see it eclipsed by a single misjudgment.
Born in 1930 in Fukaya, near Tokyo, he became the founding father of Japan’s consumer finance industry. As a child, he worked as an errand boy at his mother’s small grocery shop, but his capacity for hard work and his entrepreneurship were impossible to ignore.
In 1966 he founded Fuji Shoji. In 1974 he changed its name to the Takefuji Corporation. He gave much of the credit for his success to what he learnt during his time in the United States observing how American consumer finance companies operated.
Initially, he targeted women customers, believing them to be more reliable in meeting their loan repayment terms than other borrowers. It is said that he paid particular attention to whether they kept their homes tidy or paid their rent on time.
His company came to own thousands of shops that lent money in housing projects and other relatively deprived communities. They lent money at very high rates of interest, earning higher profits than banks that were lending nearly a hundred times more capital. Takefuji was reputedly ruthless in pursuing bad debtors.
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As president Takei and his family retained a 25 per cent stake. As the company experienced meteoric profitability and became the leading player in its financial sector, he rose from obscurity to become Japan’s second richest man.
In later years, as Japan’s economic bubble burst, bad debts rose by 75 per cent, led by a sharp increase in the number of personal bankruptcies. Under pressure from strong foreign competitors such as Citigroup and GE, his company’s market share began to decline. At the time of his death, his family fortune was said to be worth US$ 5.6 billion. It was at the summit of his achievementsthat he experienced his great fall from grace.
Takei was a man of action. He was said to have needed only two hours of sleep a night during his rise to the top, and his highly focused business acumen, drive and energy commanded respect and fear. His very powerful character, indeed, became the flaw which shredded his reputation.
Reports appeared in the press about some questionable business practices of his company. The reports led to a rapid fall in his company’s share price. The multibillionaire felt outraged and he suspected that one or more of his employees were engaged in a deliberate and sinister plot to discredit his company. He therefore ordered subordinates to engage three private detectives to tap the home telephones of the freelance investigative journalists who had written the stories.
In doing so he crossed the fine line that separates a proprietor’s right to check the loyalty of staff and the right of journalists to engage in their profession without suffering illegal interference in their private lives.
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The misjudgment he committed was to lead to a criminal investigation, and the police raided his home and 40 of his business premises in December 2003. He and several others were arrested, and a high- profile court case led to his conviction on wire-tapping charges brought before the Tokyo District Court. He was forced to retire in disgrace, replaced by his son, Taketeru, as the company’s chairman in 2003. In 2004 he was sentenced to a term of three years’ imprisonment, suspended for four years, and his company was fined a million yen (then worth £6,765).
His company had long been regarded as highly suspect by many observers, but it was this incident that was to cost him his reputation. Following his conviction, his company addressed a statement of apology to its customers and shareholders, promising never again to indulge in such criminal practices. The company’s profits plummeted, much to the benefit of rival corporations such as Acom and Aiful.
The family sold off nearly 50 million shares to foreign investment firms in an effort to stave off the company’s bankruptcy and the loss of its trading licence. The Japan Business Federation considered dropping his company from their membership.
Takei’s health declined, and from 2004 he was frequently taken to hospital. However, it was rumoured that behind the scenes he remained very much at the helm of his business.
Takei is survived by his wife, Hiroko. They had three children. Unusually, the identity of other surviving members of his family was not disclosed at their request.
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Yasuo Takei, financial businessman, was born on January 4, 1930. He died on August 11, 2006, aged 76.