Junki Yoshida, the man behind Yoshida’s Gourmet Sauces and named as one of the top 100 most respected Japanese in the world by Japanese Newsweek magazine, will be in Billings on Friday for the third annual Karate Tournament and Seminar.

The eighth-degree black belt of Japan Karate-do Ryobu-kai, will hold a karate seminar Friday as a fundraiser for the YMCA Strong Community Campaign. He will instruct a class of traditional Japanese karate, a style of karate to which he credits much of his success.

“I use a lot of philosophy of karate in my life,” Yoshida said. “Karate isn’t about destroying objects or causing pain. It’s about concentration and discipline. And determination.”

Yoshida, 62, from Kyoto, Japan, began studying and practicing karate at the age of 6 after a bully beat him down with a baseball bat. He said he was relentlessly teased by kids. But, he said, he finally realized that he had to turn his anger into determination.

By the time he graduated from high school, Yoshida was a second-degree black belt. In 1968, at the age of 19, he bought a ticket to Seattle, after failing college entrance exams, in hopes of chasing the American dream.

With $500 in his pocket, he worked odd jobs eventually earning his green card.

He enrolled at Highline Community College in Seattle, where he studied English and traded teaching karate lessons for tuition costs.

“Since I came to America, so many people have helped — I always must be giving back,” Yoshida said. “It doesn’t matter how small or how large, giving back is important.”

He said karate and martial arts is all about giving back to a community.

“It’s not about breaking boards and bricks and destroying objects like the Bruce Lee movies,” he said. “We try to avoid that in our teaching of traditional.”

Yoshida has been appointed Japan Karate Federation’s Chief Instructor for the States of Washington and Oregon, by Grand Master Yasuhiro Konishi in Japan. He oversees 13 dojos in three states. In addition to officiating at World Karate Championships, many of his students have represented the United States as members of the U.S. Karate Team under the U.S. Olympic Committee.

He has built a conglomerate of 18 companies ranging from transportation and global logistics, supply chain and packing engineering, restaurants, and an art gallery. He also has three television shows in Japan.

Aside from his entrepreneurial achievements, he also serves on many charitable boards including the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation and Ronald McDonald House Charities NW, as well as being a trustee for the Children’s Cancer Association.

Yoshida’s workshop will be held Friday from 6-7:30 p.m. at Billings Family YMCA, 402 N. 32nd Street. The workshop is $30 per person. All proceeds will provide financial assistance for low-income children and families’ YMCA memberships.

The YMCA Strong Community Campaign fundraising karate tournament will be held Saturday at Billings Family YMCA, 402 N. 32nd Street beginning at 7:30 a.m. The admission cost is $40 for individuals or $80 for a family.