Uniqlo's Yanai ranks 1st on Forbes' top-40 Japanese billionaire list

Friday 20th February, 06:39 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

12 Comments

some14some at 07:07 AM JST - 20th February

Next they should publish Forbes's special edition : Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya top Japanese billionaire list.
timorborder at 09:55 AM JST - 20th February

Is that all? Back in the days of the bubble economy, Japan had the richest folks in the world. Now the richest guy in Japan's bank account does not even amount to Uncle Bill's pocket change.
magpie at 10:05 AM JST - 20th February

Well he's done very well for himself. Didn't he start out as a shosha man at Mitsubishi corp? If he did, all credit to him for coming up with a good idea. Love Uniqlo and their Norika Fujiwara ads.
Altria at 11:59 AM JST - 20th February

Good for him. He earned it in a much better way than some pachinko king or finance fat cat.
meanmutha at 12:20 PM JST - 20th February

He deserves it. Great company and I have been buying since 1998.
meanmutha at 12:21 PM JST - 20th February

Lastly they have the hottest Japanese women as models. Illegally hot.
bogva at 01:53 PM JST - 20th February

Great! Now if we knew what percentage are actual employees and what part timers in his company! It will be nice to hear for example that the people who work for him are well covered and prospering too!
meguro at 04:04 PM JST - 20th February

this is good shop uniqlo ... your money is worth ...
presto345 at 08:39 PM JST - 20th February

Next I'd like to know what Yanai does with all this money. Is he going to be another Carnegie? I doubt it.
usaexpat at 12:48 AM JST - 21st February

He'll continue to prosper through the recession as customers "trade down" to shopping at cheaper stores like Uniqlo
Kalinikos at 12:53 AM JST - 21st February

Who needs more than 1 billion dollars for life...?
unscrejects at 05:54 PM JST - 21st February

Watch this space - earnings like Bic Camera. Uniqlo is in a nasty funk. Stacks of their merchandise is not moving. And to the poster that said "didn't he start off as a 'shosha man'...?", let's say his dad founded the company - he merely took over from daddy. The shosha connections always separate the so-called self-starter from the real entrepreneur in Japan. At least 90% of all the largest success stories - ie. so-called self made men and women, have actually been inherited businesses grown through junior's ex-trading company connections. Junior gets into the trading company through dad for a couple of years to make future business connections etc. Retires and takes over from daddy with the blessing of the trading company which bankrolls the IPO.