Japan - Richest People in Japan

The list:

1. ($15.5b)- Tadashi Yanai, 66, is the CEO of Fast Retailing, most well known for clothing giant Uniqlo. He is the only Japanese person to make the global top 100.

Bonus fact: Uniqlo is a contraction of "Unique Clothing." Sort of.

 

 

 

2. ($10.7b) – Nobutada Saji, 67, is the head of beverages company Suntory, which was founded by his grandfather.

Bonus fact: Sandwich chain Subway was introduced to Japan by Suntory in a joint venture with First Kitchen. The first Subway in Japan was opened in Akasaka in 1992, there are now 102 outlets in Tokyo alone.

Bonus fact 2: Saji looks like a Japanese Tom Selleck.

3. ($9.1b) – Masayoshi Son, 55, founder of  Asia's leading internet venture, Softbank, who's share price has risen 50% over the past twelve months. Masayoshi is the only person on this list who is also included in Forbes "World's Most Powerful People," ranking 53rd, seven places above the prime minister at the time, Yoshihiko Noda. His story is one of genuine rags to riches, having grown up in a shack in southwest Japan as the grandson of a Korean immigrant.

Bonus fact: Despite his high ranking, Masayoshi Son has the undesirable record of recording the highest losses ever made by one man, losing approximately $70 billion in the dot com crash of 2000.

4. ($6.4b) Hiroshi Mikitani, 48, chairman and CEO of Japan's biggest retailer, Rakuten.

Bonus fact: Rakuten conducts all of its meetings in English and staff refer to Mikitani as "Mickey."

 

 

 

 

 

5. ($5.2b) Kunio Busujima, 88, is the founder of pachinko machine manufacturer Sankyo. Though his son currently runs the company he is still an honorary chairman.

Bonus fact: Japanese gambling laws mean that winning money directly at pachinko parlours is illegal, therefore winners are given tokens which can be exchanged for cash at separate locations. Apparently that's fine.

 

 

6. ($5b) Akira Mori, 76, and his (now deceased) brother founded the real estate company Mori Trust with a fortune they inherited from their father. The group currently operates 67 rental buildings and 27 hotels in Japan.

Bonus fact: Mori has proposed that buildings in Japan should not be built higher than 100m(around 20-25 stories) after many high-rise office workers were traumatised by the swaying during the March 11th earthquake of 2011. The Ginza commercial area of Tokyo currently has a height restriction of 56m to make redevelopment easier.

7. ($4.7b) Takemitsu Takizaki, 67, is the founder and chairman of Keyence, a global supplier of sensors and other electronic components for factory automation systems.

Bonus fact: A number of ancient relics are exhibited throughout Keyence's Japanese headquarters, including a 350-million-year-old ammonite fossil displayed at the entrance. According to Forbes, they're to remind employees "what happens to slow moving life-forms in a fast world," indicating that the managers don't actually understand the causes of fossilisation.

8. ($3.4b) Han Chang-Woo, 82, is the Korean-Japanese CEO of Maruhan, which owns pachinko parlours, golf driving ranges, bowling alleys and movie theatres.

Bonus fact: Having made many large charitable donations in the past, including ¥10 billion ($102.5 million) to areas hit by the March 11th earthquake of 2011, Chang-Woo has stated that he wishes to spend his entire fortune on solidifying relations between Japan and South Korea before he dies.

9. ($3.3b) Keiichiro Takahara, 82, is the founder and chairman of Unicharm, maker of diapers, sanitary napkins and other personal care goods.

Bonus fact: Though the birth rate may be declining in Japan, Takahara won't be too worried. The ageing population has simply changed his diapers demographic, with sales for adults overtaking babies for the first time in 2012.

 

 

 

10. ($2.8b)Masatoshi Ito, 88, is honorary chair of Japan's largest retail company Seven & I, which operates 50,000 stores nationwide. In 2013 they plan to open 1,500 more 7-Elevens in Japan alone.

Bonus fact: 7-Eleven adds another store to its worldwide operations every two hours.

Source & pictures: Forbes (Based on total family wealth, not that of the individual alone)