Hirotake Yano, founder of popular retail chain Daiso, dies at 80

In 1972, Yano Hirotake started his entrepreneurial journey by setting up a street stall. (Data map)

Japan:

Hirotake Yano, Japan’s 100-yen store pioneer and founder of the Daiso chain, has died, the company said.

Daiso said in a statement on Monday that the billionaire “died in Hiroshima of heart failure on February 12 at the age of 80.”

Yano began selling goods at a street stall in 1972 after his father-in-law’s fish business and job peddling encyclopedias failed.

Five years later, Yano, tired of setting different prices for different items, launched Daiso, selling everything for 100 yen ($0.67 today).

Struggling with stagnant wages and prices, Daiso discount stores are now everywhere, selling everything from the utilitarian to the useless, sometimes for more than 100 yen.

The company has expanded across Asia and overseas starting in Taiwan in 2001, and 990 of its 5,350 stores are outside Japan, according to its website.

Local media quoted Yano as saying in 2001: “I failed many times… but I kept going because I thought there was nothing I could do.”

“This is the value and fun that customers can find for 100 yen. They get spiritual satisfaction from the shopping experience,” he said.

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