Summary

• Frieza, inspired by Japanese real estate developers, mirrors their ruthless greed & caused destruction like the Bubble Economy.
• Toriyama based Frieza on land sharks who raised land prices unsustainably, leading to Japan's economic collapse.
• Frieza's evil reflects the worst qualities of real-life developers, emphasizing greed over morality & resembling a capitalist.

Frieza is one of Dragon Ball's most vile villains, responsible for more death and destruction than practically any other character in the series. However, Frieza's real-life inspiration is a bit more down to Earth, and it was a very specific group of morally ambiguous figures who led to the creation of Goku's greatest nemesis.

When discussing his villains in an interview for the book Daizenshuu 2, translated by Kanzenshuu, Akira Toriyama mused on the things that inspired him to create some of the series' biggest antagonists. Frieza is, according to Akira Toriyama, the "#1 land shark in the universe," a title the tyrant has surely earned, with his entire business themed around committing genocide in order to sell the now-empty planets to others.

While Frieza may have taken things to the extreme, his real life inspirations--real estate developers in Japan's Bubble Economy period--were known for being almost as ruthless.

Frieza is the Land Developer Pushed to Its Moral Limits

Frieza's Inspiration Destroyed the Japanese Economy

When Akira Toriyama talks about land sharks, he's referring to real estate developers who rapidly raised the prices of land in Japan from 1986-1991, during what was known as the "Bubble Economy." The prices for land were increased by over 300% in some cases during this period, making it increasingly impossible for people to afford to purchase land for homes and businesses. These prices weren't sustainable, and the bubble eventually collapsed in 1992, triggering one of the worst recessions known in Japanese history. In many ways, it was similar to the 2008 financial crisis in the US, although far more severe.

In other words, the collapse of the Japanese economy was driven by intense greed, something which Akira Toriyama clearly had a poor view of, calling these developers "the worst person of all." Frieza's occupation as a planet broker who goes to any length to secure land to sell isn't that different from the land developers who collapsed Japan's economy, even knowing what would happen as they did it. With these developers seen as the big villains in the real world, basing a fictional villain upon them and turning up the greed and evil further just makes good sense. After all, who wouldn't want to see Goku lay the beatdown on those responsible for the suffering that the depression caused?

Frieza is the ultimate capitalist, unbound by morality and concerned only with profit and wealth. There's a reason why Frieza is one of the few Dragon Ball villains to have many dangerous underlings, such as the Ginyu Force, working under him: he's paying them. Frieza will do anything and everything it takes to secure his position as the most powerful and wealthiest in the universe. Given the situation in Japan at the time, it's no wonder that Toriyama would look at such a land developer as "the worst person of all." Japan's real-life economic problems ended up leading to the creation of Dragon Ball's greatest villain, designed to embody all the worst qualities that led the nation to financial ruin.