Yoshiaki Tsutsumi

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi (堤 義明, Tsutsumi Yoshiaki, born May 29, 1934) is a Japanese businessman. During the Japanese economic bubble, Forbes listed Tsutsumi as the wealthiest person in the world during 1987–94^[1][2] due to his extensive real estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled. In 1987, he had a net worth of $20 billion (approximately $39.4 billion in today's value). However, as a result of a series of scandals and his 2005 arrest, his net worth has fallen to such an extent that he was taken off the Forbes list of billionaires in 2007.

Business career[]

In 1964, the thirty-year-old Yoshiaki Tsutsumi inherited control of the Seibu Corporation upon the death of the company founder, his father Yasujirō Tsutsumi. Most observers had expected the designated successor to be his elder half-brother Seiji Tsutsumi. Seiji instead inherited the Seibu department stores, which he subsequently parlayed into the Credit Saison empire. Perceived rivalry between the two brothers' fiefdoms provided fodder for the popular press.^{[citation needed]}

As chairman, Tsutsumi focused on developing and expanding the vast land holdings inherited from his father. At one point, his companies owned one sixth of all the land in Japan.^{[citation needed]}

The January 17, 2005 edition of The Wall Street Journal made an investigation on Tsutsumi and the Seibu Corporation public to English readers. According to the paper, the Seibu corporation's headquarters were raided by police, who allegedly found evidence of several Japanese business law-breaking incidents. The police, for example, claimed that the company declared that their major shareholders accounted only for 64 percent of the company's shareholders, but that, in reality, the major shareholders at Seibu actually owned 88 percent of the company's shares. Such bogus ownership statement is suspected to be illegal falsification. Major shareholders can only get up to 80 percent of a Japanese company's stock to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. That scandal was originally opened in 2002 in Japan, after which Tsutsumi was ordered by a court out of the company, but he remained in it, although at a much less paid employment.^{[citation needed]}

On March 3, 2005, Tsutsumi was arrested on suspicion of violation of securities trading law. Tsutsumi pleaded guilty, and on October 27, 2005, the Tokyo District Court sentenced him to 30 months in prison, suspended for 4 years, and a fine of 5 million yen. His suspended sentence expired in October 2009 and he remains indirectly a major shareholder in Seibu Holdings.^{[citation needed]}

Sports career[]

Tsutsumi served as chairman of the Japan Ice Hockey Federation and owned the Seibu Tetsudo hockey club. While attending the 1968 Winter Olympics, he invited Canadian coach David Bauer to travel to Japan for a month-long series of hockey clinics across the country. He continued travels to Japan and instructed at hockey schools for two six-week periods each year until 1978.^[3]

Tsutsumi initiated new ventures into the sports market, building a stadium in the greater Tokyo area to house a professional baseball team, the Seibu Lions. He was instrumental in the successful Nagano bid for the 1998 Winter Olympics.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

External links[]

• Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People
• Downer, Lesley (1994). The Brothers: the hidden world of Japan's richest family. New York: Random House, Inc. ISBN 0-679-42554-3.
• Disgraced billionaire gets fine, not time^{[dead link]} asahi.com. October 28, 2005.
• Tycoon Tsutsumi found guilty of fraud Japan Times Online. October 28, 2005.
• Billionaires richer, Russia, India rise: Forbes Reuters March 8, 2007.
• Former world's richest man Tsutsumi settles suit with Seibu ｜the japan times