Written by JAPAN Forward

The annual list of richest persons released by Forbes magazine for 2019 puts Tadashi Yanai, founder of Fast Retailing company that owns the Uniqlo clothing chain, on top in Japan. According to Forbes, Yanai and his family have a net worth of $24.9 billion USD.

Yanai’s wealth increased by 29% or $5.6 billion USD from $24.9 billion in 2018, according to the 2019 Forbes Japan Rich List released on Thursday, April 11.

The last time Yanai ranked as the richest Japanese was in 2016.

He dislodged Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank, from the No. 1 spot, even though SoftBank had registered stock gains which increased Son’s 2019 wealth to $24 billion USD, up by $2.1 billion from 2018.

Forbes compiled the list using information from the individuals, stock exchanges, analysts, and government agencies, among other sources. For the 2019 list, the minimum required for individuals to make the list was $900 million, lower than last year’s minimum of $960 million.

Based on Forbes criteria, the 10 richest persons in Japan are:

• Tadashi Yanai – US$24.9 billion
• Masayoshi Son – $24 billion
• Takemitsu Takizaki – $18.6 billion
• Nobutada Saji – $10.8 billion
• Hiroshi Mikitani – $6 billion
• Yasumitsu Shigeta – $5.4 billion
• Takahisa Takahara – $5.2 billion
• Akira Mori – $4.7 billion
• Shigenobu Nagamori – $4.5 billion
• Hideyuki Busujima – $4.45 billion