Yanai had vowed to transform the chain of clothing stores he inherited from his father. Uniqlo was born and he's taken it to global dominance, and he's just getting started
Tadashi Yanai, chairman, president & CEO, Fast Retailing; founder, UNIQLO
Overlooking the picturesque Sumida River, Fast Retailing’s headquarters in the Ariake district of Tokyo looks nothing like a traditional office. Built primarily for the company’s most popular brand, Uniqlo, the office features a 4.5-acre single-floor layout crafted to resemble a mini city. The workspace includes a winding interior street that spans the entire building, with meeting rooms, coffee shops, a large library, and diverse creative studios seamlessly integrated under one roof.
This ‘Ariake Project’ was a far-fetched dream for 23-year-old Tadashi Yanai.
Fifty-two years back, he took charge of his father’s clothing chain—Ogori Shoji—which had a handful of stores in Yamaguchi and Fukuoka Prefectures in southern Japan. When Yanai took over, he sought to make a dramatic change. From selling only men’s suits, he transitioned to casual everyday wear. In 1984, he opened a new store in Hiroshima, named Unique Clothing Warehouse, which he later shortened to Uniqlo.
At that time, he could not have anticipated that Fast Retailing—Uniqlo’s parent company—would boast of nearly ¥3 trillion ($20 billion) in annual sales in FY23 and that Yanai, now 75 years old, would be Japan’s richest man with a net worth of $38 billion as of May, according to Forbes.
At 23, when Yanai was running his father’s tailoring shop, he handled every task—from lifting the store’s shutter and tidying up the space to assisting customers, managing sales, counting the cash and locking up at night.