Last summer, we broke that former Tecmo president Yoshimi Yasuda was at the center of not one Tecmo employee brouhaha, but two. The president eventually resigned, but he's found another job. Good for him.
Yasuda was the center of the Itagaki vs. Tecmo legal suit. Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki sued for unpaid DoA 4 wages. These were "special incentive" wages that Itagaki claimed were agreed to by the former Tecmo president and the board of directors, but the current president is claiming these "special incentive" wages were made by the former president and not approved by the Tecmo board.
As we posted last year, Itagaki left Tecmo and filed suit for unpaid bonuses. As Itagaki stated then, "President Yoshimi Yasuda chose not only to violate this agreement, but also turned defiant, telling me 'if you are dissatisfied with the decision not to pay the bonuses, either quit the company or sue it.'"
During the court proceedings, evidence was presented, such as this secret audio tape that we posted online, which contained statements by Yasuda that seemed in direct conflict with his court claim that this "special incentives" proposal was made by the former president and not approved by the Tecmo board. The recording helped support Itagaki's claim that his special incentive bonus was approved by Tecmo's former president and the board of directors, and that the Yasuda knew this, contradicting himself.
Besides this legal spat, Yasuda was embroiled in a totally separate lawsuit filed by other Tecmo employees as well - Hiroaki Ozawa and co-plaintiff Tatsuki Tsunoda. Ozawa is the Tecmo Labor Union leader and Ninja Gaiden 2 lead engineer, while Tsunoda is the Ninja Gaiden 2 level design lead. According to the suit, the workers were illegally placed on a "flexible hours" work scheme where overtime was not paid.
All that is water under the bridge, it seems. Yasuda has a new white collar executive level job. Japan's Kadokawa Group Holdings has announced a 100 percent owned subsidiary named Kadokawa Games. The president of this company? Yoshimi Yasuda. Kadokawa Games will focus on online games and the overseas market. And like that, another disgraced business exec lands on his feet.
Enterbrain, the publisher of Famitsu, is an affiliate of Kadokawa Group Holdings. Former Sony Computer Entertainment exec Ken Kutaragi is a Kadokawa Group Holdings board member as well. Just sayin'.
「角川ゲームス」設立 社長にテクモ元社長の安田善巳氏 [IT Media via my game news flash