image source, Getty Images
Daiso has more than 4,000 stores in its home country.
Hirotake Yano, the billionaire founder of Japanese discount retailer Daiso, has died at the age of 80 from heart failure.
Daiso is a so-called 100 yen shop, similar to a pound shop.
Mr. Yano opened his first discount retail store in 1972 and was considered a pioneer of the dollar store business model.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Hirotake Yano, founder and former president of Daiso Sangyo Co., Ltd., last Monday,” Daiso Sangyo said on its website.
A commemorative gathering will be held in the near future, the release added.
After graduating from Tokyo's Chuo University in 1967, Yano worked in a variety of jobs, including managing his father-in-law's fishing business until it went bankrupt.
In 1972, at the age of 29, he launched his first business, Yano Shoten (Yano Shoten).
Five years later, he changed the company name to “Daiso,'' which means “creating something big.'' It became famous because all items cost 100 yen.
Yano and his wife, Katsuyo, said they decided to price all items at 100 yen because it would be too much work to change the prices of their products.
Hirotake Yano founded his first business in 1972
As the Japanese economy stagnated in the 1990s and customers became more price-conscious, Daiso achieved success.
The business model pioneered by Yano is now popular around the world.
As of the end of 2023, Daiso has 4,360 stores in its home country and approximately 1,000 stores around the world, with stores not only in Asia but also in North America and the Middle East.
Like the discount stores that Yano inspired, Daiso has had to change its approach to pricing, and now sells items at multiples of 100 yen.
It has over 70,000 products in stock and develops over 1,000 new products a month.
The company calls itself “Japan's number one living wear supplier.''
Yano's net worth was $1.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
