Hajime Satomi (里見 治) is a Japanese businessman. Satomi is known as the founder of Sammy Corporation, which merged with the Japan-based video game and arcade game producer Sega to form the holding company Sega Sammy Holdings. He is among the 50 richest people in Japan, and is a top-ranked owner of Thoroughbred horses, like the Satono Diamond.[2]
History
Hajime Satomi withdrew from Aoyama Gakuin University in November of 1975 and founded Sammy Corporation.
Sammy experienced significant growth when it began manufacturing machines for the pachislot and pachinko industry (one of Japan's most popular forms of gambling) and was successfully listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in March 2001. Sammy Corporation is now the leading manufacturer of pachislot and pachinko machines.
With 22% shares bought in 2003, Sammy then bought a controlling share 1.1 billion dollars in Sega in 2004. Hajime Satomi heads the newly combined $4.5 billion (sales) group, now called