The Richest Men in Japan
by kalyani10
Masayoshi Son
Born a Zainichi Korean and now a naturalized Japanese citizen, Masayoshi is a businessman and the founder and current chief executive officer of SoftBank Capital, and the chief executive officer of SoftBank Mobile, which has become one of Japan's top three mobile networks since 2006 acquisition of Vodaphone Japan. According to Forbes, his net worth is $7.2 billion as of March 2012. Son is the second richest man in Japan, despite having lost a staggering approximately $70 billion to the dot com crash of 2000.
Like many Japanese billionaires, Son came forward with hefty donations in the aftermath of Japan’s nuclear crisis in 2011. He was in fact the biggest individual donor to earthquake relief efforts; he gave $125 million to a dozen organizations including Japanese Red Cross and pledged all his future Softbank salary pay to support quake orphans. However he has been critical of Japan’s nuclear industry and made headlines with plans to join provincial and municipal governments to co-invest in solar and wind energy.
Japan is among the richest countries of the world and one of the leading technological powers. Despite being subjected to crippling bombings which ended the Second World War, Japan is today the third largest economy by nominal GDP as well as purchasing power. It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. According to the 2012 Forbes World Billionaire List1, there were 22 people from Japan who made it among the billionaires on the globe. Here is a list of the richest men in Japan and a little bit about their wealth.
Tadashi Yanai
The Japanese presence on Forbes 2012 list of World Billionaires is led by Tadashi Yanai and family with assets worth $10 billion and ranking 88th among the world’s billionaires. The source of the Yanai fortune lies in retail and Tadashi is the founder and president of Fast Retailing, of which Uniqlo, standing for "unique clothing" is subsidiary; apart from this the company also owns Theory and Helmut Lang brands. Recently Yanai was in news when Uniqlo opened 89,000-square-foot store in Manhattan, the single largest retail space on Fifth Avenue, and the chain's largest worldwide. The company reportedly paid $300 million for that lease. Uniqlo is set to open an even bigger one in 2012 in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. Born February 7, 1949 Yanai attended Ube High School and later Waseda University, graduating in 1971 with a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Politics. In 1984, he opened his first Uniqlo store in Hiroshima and after that there was no looking back.
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Apart from being a successful entrepreneur Tadashi Yanai is also famous for this philanthropy. Yanai was heralded in Japan for relief efforts after the earthquake. He personally gave $12 million; company donated $8.5 million in clothes and $3.6 million in funds plus $1.2 million from employees. The 63 year old billionaire is married and father of two children; he resides in Tokyo and is believed to be horse-racing fan.
Masayoshi Son
Born a Zainichi Korean and now a naturalized Japanese citizen, Masayoshi is a businessman and the founder and current chief executive officer of SoftBank Capital, and the chief executive officer of SoftBank Mobile, which has become one of Japan's top three mobile networks since 2006 acquisition of Vodaphone Japan. According to Forbes, his net worth is $7.2 billion as of March 2012. Son is the second richest man in Japan, despite having lost a staggering approximately $70 billion to the dot com crash of 2000.
Like many Japanese billionaires, Son came forward with hefty donations in the aftermath of Japan’s nuclear crisis in 2011. He was in fact the biggest individual donor to earthquake relief efforts; he gave $125 million to a dozen organizations including Japanese Red Cross and pledged all his future Softbank salary pay to support quake orphans. However he has been critical of Japan’s nuclear industry and made headlines with plans to join provincial and municipal governments to co-invest in solar and wind energy.
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Hiroshi Mikitani
With a net worth of $6.2 billion, Hiroshi Mikitani is the next richest man in Japan. Chairman and chief executive of online shopping mall operator Rakuten. In recent times, Mikitani has been on a growth spree - last year it acquired Germany's Tradoria online mall, the UK's Play.com online retail site and others commercial portals in Indonesia and Russia. Rakuten also has a China online mall in venture with Baidu.com. It is edging forward to invest into e-books with acquisition of Canada's Kobe e-reader firm.
Apart from his extensive online retail empire, Mikitani also owns the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team. The 47 year old billionaire is married and lives in Tokyo. His company Rakuten donated $3.7 million to earthquake relief efforts and raised millions more via Rakuten Securities and digital wallet service Edy.
Kunio Busujima
Along with his family Kuniyo Busujima has a net worth of $5.9 billion as of March 2012. Konia Busujima is is the founder and chairman of Sankyo, one of the three major pachinko machine makers in Japan. Due to the game's declining popularity, Sankyo’s sales have suffered in past five years. As a result, Sankyo is looking for a boost from new games like Fever X Japan, a collaboration with a popular rock band, introduced in September 2010 to attract younger players.
The 87 year old patriarch of the Sankyo empire is known to keep low profile. Little is known about Kunio Busujima except that he lives in Gunma, is married and has four children.
Yoshikazu Tanaka
With a net worth of $4.3 billion, Yoshikazu Tanaka is not only among the top richest men of Japan but at just 35 years of age, he is also one of the youngest in the world. He is the Founder of the Japanese's mobile gaming, GREE, a name which is a play on the expression, "Six degrees of separation. It is also largest social networking site of the country with some 29 million users in Japan. Currently Tanaka has plans for global expansion and will soon establish a California office for GREE. It acquired U.S. mobile gaming company OpenFeint last year, and works with China's largest net portal, Tencent – as a result of these global ventures, it now reaches over 190 million users globally.
In 2010, Tanaka year old was ranked as “Asia's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire” under the age of 35 and was selected as the “World's Second-Youngest Self-Made Billionaire” after Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Tanaka is single as of now and resides in Tokyo, Japan.
Akira Mori
Along with his family, real estate mogul Akira Mori enjoys a net worth of $3.5 billion, firmly placing him among Japan’s richest men. Akira, with brother Minoru, who is also a billionaire, inherited his initial fortune from his father. The brothers parted ways, with Akira focusing on office buildings, apartment blocks and hotels in high-rent districts of Tokyo. Akira Mori’s Mori Trust suffered a fall in valuation in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake during which operations in Sendai were particularly affected. The company's subsidiary also has stake in Mori Trust Sogo REIT; according to Forbes, the REIT's share price has come down by 20% in 20122. However in July 2012 Akira announced that he has formed a company to invest in China, particularly in educational services and mass media; with this The company became the second-largest shareholder in closely held Beijing-based Tsingda eEdu Corp., which offers classes over the Internet3.
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