Yoshiaki Tsutsumi Biography & Net Worth

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi Biography & Net Worth

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi is a Japanese businessman who was listed by Forbes as the richest person in the world from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. During the Japanese economic bubble, he amassed a great fortune due to his real estate investments under the Seibu Corporation which he managed. However, as a result of several scandals and his arrest in 2005, his wealth dropped bastardly to an extent that he dropped out of the world’s billionaires list in 2007. The following are exclusive details of Yoshiaki Tsutsumi’s biography and businesses, personal life, controversies, and other intriguing facts about this former billionaire

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi’s Biography & Career

Tsutsumi Yoshiaki was born in Japan on May 29, 1934. His father was Yasujiro Tsutsumi, the man who founded the multinational company Seibu Corporation. Upon the death of Yasujiro in 1964, a thirty-year-old Yoshiaki Tsutsumi took over from his father and inherited control of the Seibu Corporation. AT that time, many people expected his older half-brother Seiji Tsutsumi to be the designated successor. While Yoshiaki inherited Seibu Corp., Seiji inherited Seibu department stores, which he went on to parlay into the Credit Saison Empire. Perceived competition between the brothers provided fodder for the media at that time.

Yoshiaki became chairman of Seibu Corporation and focused on the development and expansion of the enormous land holdings he inherited from his father. At a point in time, his companies owned approximately one sixth of all the land in his country Japan.

According to a publication by The Wall Street Journal on January 17, 2005, an investigation was carried out on Tsutsumi and his company. The headquarters of Seibu Corporation were raided by the Japanese police, who allegedly discovered evidence of several business law-breaking incidents. The police, for instance, claimed that the company stated that their key shareholders accounted for only 64% of the company’s shareholders, but that in truth, the key shareholders at Seibu Corp. actually owned 88% of the company’s shares. Such phony ownership statement is alleged to be illegal falsification. Key shareholders can only get as much as 80% of a Japanese company’s stock to be included on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. That controversy was originally opened in Japan in 2002, after which Yoshiaki was ordered out of the company by a court, but he continued to be a part of the company, although at a lesser paid employment.

He was arrested on charges of violation of securities trading law on March 3, 2005. Tsutsumi pleaded guilty, and in October that year, a court in Tokyo sentenced him to thirty months in prison, fined him 5 million yen, and suspended him for 4 years. His suspended sentence ran out in October 2009 and he joined Seibu Holdings as a major shareholder.

His father’s company aside, Tsutsumi has also been a huge part of sports which is one of his favorite things. He owned the Seibu Tetsudo hockey club and once served as chairman of Japan Ice Hockey Federation. While attending the Winter Olympics of 1968, he invited Canadian coach

Father Bauer to travel with him to Japan for a four weeks-long series of hockey clinics around the country. He continued trips to Japan and tutored at hockey schools for two six-week durations each year until 1978. Tsutsumi introduced new projects into the sports market and constructed a stadium in greater Tokyo to house the professional baseball team, Seibu Lions. He has been credited for playing a vital role in the successful Nagano bid for the Winter Olympics 1998.

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi Net Worth

This businessman was considered the richest man in the world from 1987 to 1994. The source of his fortune was the massive real estate investment he made through the company he inherited from his father. Known as Seibu Corporation, the company was chaired by Yoshiaki Tsutsumi for many years, and he went on to expand the company, registering it as one of the leading businesses in the hole of Asia. Tragedy however, befell the hardworking man when in 2005, investigations revealed several punishable disparities in his company. He was arrested and imprisoned, thereby losing a huge part of his wealth in the process.

Today, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi net worth is approximately $500 million. He has been delisted from the list of the world’s billionaires following a big dramatical decline in his wealth. While it is agreeable that Yohiaki Tsutsumi may not be the man he used to be in terms of financial might and influential capability, he is still very much an important figure in the Japanese business world and made an unrivaled record as the chairman of his company during the peak of his career. He is currently a key shareholder in Seibu Holdings, and will forever be remembered and respected for his contributions to the sports industry in Japan.