According to a statement by Daiso Industries Co., the company's founder and former president Yano Hirotake has passed away at the age of 80 due to heart failure.
WHO IS YANO HIROTAKE?
After graduating from Chuo University in Tokyo in 1967, Yano began selling goods from his truck as "Yano Shoten" in 1972.
Yano, who changed the name of his business to "Daiso" (meaning "big start") in 1977, transformed it into a retail chain by selling his products for "100 yen".
The company, which gained customer appreciation during Japan's "deflationary period" between 1991 and 2001, opened its first overseas store in Taiwan in 2001.
The retail chain, headquartered in Hiroshima in the southwest, has nearly 4,400 domestic stores and nearly 1,000 overseas stores, including in the US.
Yano, who handed over the presidency of the company to his son Seiji in 2018, served for a period as a guest lecturer at Chuo University.
Daiso, which still sells products with a "100-yen" (0.67 dollar) price tag, saw its sales revenue rise to 550 billion yen (3.6 billion dollars) as of February 2022.
With over 70 thousand different products in its inventory, Daiso describes itself as "Japan's number 1 supplier of living essentials".
It is noted that Yano's net worth was 1.9 billion dollars.
Yano Hirotake passed away on February 20, 2024.
News Source: AA
