Tadashi Yanai (柳井 正) is a Japanese billionaire businessman and the founder and president of Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo ("unique clothing"). [1] As of May 2025, he is the richest person in Japan, with an estimated net worth of US$50.3 billion, and the 28th-wealthiest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[2][3][4]
Yanai was born in Ube, Yamaguchi, in February 1949.[5] He attended Ube High School and later
In 1971, Yanai started in business by selling kitchenware and men's clothing at a JUSCO supermarket. After a year at JUSCO, he quit and joined his father's roadside tailor shop.[8] Yanai opened his first Uniqlo store in Hiroshima in 1984,[6] and changed the name of his father's company Ogori Shoji to Fast Retailing in 1991.[8] He has stated: "I might look successful, but I've made many mistakes. People take their failures too seriously. You have to be positive and believe you will find success next time."[9]
In 2019, Yanai stepped down from the board of Softbank after 18 years as an independent director at the Japanese technology conglomerate.[10]
In March 2011, Yanai donated 1 billion yen to victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.[11] In 2015, Yanai founded the Yanai Tadashi Foundation, which awards full scholarships and additional income to Japanese high school students admitted to selective colleges in the United States and the United Kingdom.[12] As of September 2025, 310 Japanese high schoolers have received the award.
Yanai is a major donor to the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2014, he donated $2.5 million to establish the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities in partnership with Yanai's alma mater Waseda University. In 2020, he gave an additional $25 million to endow the initiative.[13] In 2024, he donated another $31 million to the initiative.[14]
He is the son of Kanichi Yanai and Hisako Mori Yanai. Yanai is married and has two sons, Kazumi and Koji, and lives in Tokyo.[15] In 2018, Yanai's son Koji launched the Tokyo Toilet Project, which later became the basis of the film Perfect Days.[16][17] He lives in a $50 million, 16,586-square-foot house outside of Tokyo and owns two golf courses in Hawaii.[18]
