MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images
- Tadashi Yanai is the richest person in Japan, worth an estimated $24.8 billion.
- He’s the chairman and biggest shareholder of Fast Retailing, the largest clothing retailer in Asia and parent company of Uniqlo.
- The Japanese billionaire lives in a $50 million house in the woods outside of Tokyo and owns two golf courses in Hawaii.
Tadashi Yanai is the richest person in Japan.
The Japanese businessman is worth an estimated $24.8 billion, according to Bloomberg. His fortune comes from his position as chairman and the biggest shareholder of Fast Retailing, the largest clothing retailer in Asia and the parent company of Uniqlo.
Yanai opened the first Uniqlo store in 1984 and has expanded the brand to more than 2,000 stores in at least 20 countries.
Uniqlo’s clothing is "geared to all types of people: whether they are billionaires, the middle class, the lower end," Yanai told Vault Magazine in 2011. "We need to cater to all, just like Marks and Spencer or Gap or the current H&M and Zara. Unless we cater to all segments of life and segments of people, we cannot be successful."
The Japanese billionaire lives in a $50 million house in the woods outside of Tokyo and owns another home in a ritzy, exclusive neighborhood in the city. He also owns two golf courses in Hawaii, where he spends a few weeks each summer, according to Bloomberg.
Here’s a look at the life of Japan’s richest person.
Meet Tadashi Yanai, the richest person in Japan and chairman of Fast Retailing.
Fast Retailing
The Japanese businessman heads Fast Retailing and is worth an estimated $24.8 billion. He’s more than $6 billion richer than the second-richest person in Japan, Takemitsu Takizaki, according to Bloomberg.
Yanai’s wealth comes from his position as president, chairman, and the largest shareholder of Fast Retailing, the largest clothing retailer in Asia. The 70-year-old billionaire holds a 46% stake in the company.
Fast Retailing is the parent company of Uniqlo and other brands including Theory, Comptoir des Cotonniers, and J Brand.
August_0802/Shuttestock
Fast Retailing has thousands of stores worldwide and reported a yearly revenue of $16.9 billion in August 2017, according to Bloomberg.
Yanai was born in southern Japan in 1949, the son of a clothing seller.
The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images
Yanai’s father owned a men’s clothing shop called Men’s Shop Ogori Shoji. The store was on the first floor and the family lived above it. By the 1970s, the business had several locations.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Katie Warren)