Tadashi Yanai (柳井 正, Yanai Tadashi, born 7 February 1949) is a Japanese billionaire businessman, the founder and president of Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo (“unique clothing”). As of October 2021, he was the richest person in Japan, with an estimated net worth of US$26.5 billion & 37 th wealthiest person in the World according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The majority of Yanai’s fortune is derived from his stake in Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo. Fast Retailing is Asia’s largest clothing retailer with more than 2,300 stores, according to its website.
He owns 44% of the shares directly and through holding companies, according to Fast Retailing’s Nov. 4, 2022 stock exchange disclosure. He’s credited with the shares held by his wife and two sons because he’s founder and chairman of the company.
The value of his cash investments is based on investments, dividends, taxes and market performance.
Aldo Liguori, a Fast Retailing spokesman, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Biography
Early life and education
Yanai was born in Ube, Yamaguchi in February 1949. He attended Ube High School and later Waseda University, graduating in 1971 with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science. His uncle was an activist for the minority group known as Burakumin, who have continued to suffer caste-based discrimination in employment and marriage in modern Japan.
Career
Yanai graduated with a degree in economics and politics from Waseda University in 1971, and began his career selling kitchenware and men’s clothing at a Jusco supermarket. After a year, he quit and joined his father’s business.
In 1984, Yanai started Unique Clothing Warehouse in Hiroshima, later shortening the name to Uniqlo. He changed the name of his father’s company Ogori Shoji to Fast Retailing by 1991, reflecting the apparel chain’s expansion strategy. It soon became the fastest-growing retailer in Japan, expanding to encompass more than 100 stores over the next three years. That number doubled by 1996, as Yanai used capital from the stock market to build his empire and forge deals with Chinese apparel producers. He started designing, manufacturing and selling only Uniqlo-brand apparel. Uniqlo’s fleece jackets, selling for $15, became a hit product. An estimated one in four Japanese had bought a fleece item from Uniqlo by 1998. Uniqlo sold 26 million fleece units through more than 400 stores in 2000, all in Japan.
Yanai began expanding overseas in 2001 and ended up closing 16 of 21 stores in the UK. He started a food distribution business that also failed. The failures didn’t stop the billionaire from opening stores worldwide. As of July 2015, there were more than 1,600 Uniqlo stores around the world, of which 630 are outside Japan. The company plans to open 100 stores every year in China, it’s largest overseas market, according to its 2014 annual report. Besides Uniqlo and discount brand G.U., Fast Retailing has expanded by acquiring other fashion businesses, including New York’s Theory, France’s Comptoir des Cotonniers, and Onezone, Cabin Corp. and Princesse tam.tam.
Published works
- One Win, Nine Losses (1991)
- Throw Away Your Success in a Day (2009)
Awards and honours
- Yanai won the International Retailer of Year award for 2010 from the National Retail Federation in the US. He was the fourth Japanese national to win it, and the first since 1998, when it was won by Masatoshi Ito, owner and honorary chairman of the Ito-Yokado retailing group. He was also chosen as best company president in a survey of Japanese corporate executives by Sanno Institute of Management in 2008 and 2009.
- In 2012 he was included in the 50 Most Influential list of Bloomberg Markets Magazine.
Milestones
- 1949 Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.
- 1971 Graduates from Waseda University with bachelor’s degree.
- 1984 Opens the first Uniqlo store in Hiroshima.
- 1994 Lists Fast Retailing on Hiroshima Stock Exchange.
- 2001 Becomes an external director of SoftBank.
- 2006 Uniqlo opens fist global flagship store in New York’s SoHo district.
- 2012 Opens largest Uniqlo store in Ginza, Tokyo.
- 2014 Hong Kong depository receipts start trading.
