Tadashi Yanai was born on 7 February 1949, in the Japanese prefecture of Yamaguchi, is rated by Forbes magazine in 2015 as the richest person in Japan, and the 41st richest in the world. Tadashi is known principally as a self-made billionaire, the founder and president of Fast Retailing, of which Uniqlo (“unique clothing”) is a subsidiary.
Tadashi Yanai Net Worth $20 Billion
So just how rich is Tadashi Yanai? Forbes estimates that in 2015 Tadashi’s net worth has reached over $20 billion, assessed as having increased by more than $3 billion in the last year, with most of his wealth having been accumulated through his retail operations since starting his own business in the early 80s.
Yanai attended Ube High School, and then graduated from Waseda University in 1971 with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Politics. Yanai then started on the ground floor in business, selling kitchenware and men’s clothing in Jusco one of the major supermarkets in Japan. However, after just a year, he left and went into his father’s family business, a roadside tailor shop.
By 1984, Yanai had accumulated enough money and support to open his first Uniqlo store, in Hiroshima, and subsequently changed the name of his father’s company, Ogori Shoji to Fast Retailing in 1991, of which he is now Chairman, President and CEO. By 1998 there were more than 300 Uniqlo stores.
Tadashi Yanai also has many other business interests aside from extending Fast Retailing, including being an external director of Softbank corporation since 2002, Chairman of Link Holdings since 2004, and several other positions under the umbrella of Fast Retailing in the USA and France.
Yanai won the International Retailer of Year award for 2010 from the National Retail Federation in US, the fourth Japanese national to win it. He was also chosen as best company president in a survey of Japanese corporate executives by Sanno Institute of Management in 2008 and 2009. Apart from his core brand, Uniqlo, reporting a 65% increase in international sales in 2014, in part from his strategy of creating flagship stores and keeping tight control of company culture, his business philosophy includes 3 months of training for every new employee, and Tadashi is also keen on promoting gender equality in the workplace, making it easier for women to work shortened hours.
In 2012 Tadashi Yanai was included in the 50 Most Influential Persons list of Bloomberg Markets Magazine. His autobiography is entitled “One Win, Nine Losses”.
Yanai is married with two sons, Kazumi Yanai and Koji Yanai who are heirs to his empire, and lives in Tokyo. As with many billionaires, Tadashi is a noted philanthropist, including donating $100 million to victims of the 2011 Sendai earthquake. In 2013 he announced $1.2 million in fellowships for Japanese students at the Harvard Business School and Harvard Graduate School of Design.
