Meet golf-mad billionaire Tadashi Yanai, Uniqlo founder and Japan’s richest person
- The 70-year-old son of a tailor, who owns two golf courses and launched his clothing brand in 1984, is worth US$24.8 billion
Businessman Tadashi Yanai – best known around the world for his Uniqlo clothing retail company – is the richest person in Japan.
The 70-year-old, who likes to start work at 7am and be home by 4pm, is worth an estimated US$24.8 billion, Bloomberg reported.
His fortune is derived from his position as chairman, president and biggest shareholder of Fast Retailing, Asia’s largest clothing retailer, which is the parent company of Uniqlo.
Yanai, the son of a tailor, 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 has said.
“We need to cater to all, just like [Britain’s] Marks & Spencer or Gap or H&M and Zara. Unless we cater to all segments of life and segments of people, we cannot be successful.”
He lives in a US$50 million house in the woods outside Tokyo and owns another home in an exclusive neighbourhood in the Japanese capital.
The passionate golfer owns two golf courses in Hawaii, where he reportedly spends a few weeks playing each summer.
Check out the life of Japan's richest person.