Hirotake Yano, the innovative mind behind the Daiso chain, renowned for its 100-yen shops, has passed away at the age of 80 due to heart failure, the company confirmed.
Yano, a billionaire entrepreneur, breathed his last on February 12 in Hiroshima, according to a statement released by Daiso on Monday.
The journey of Yano’s entrepreneurial success began in 1972 when he started selling goods from a humble street stall after experiencing setbacks in his father-in-law’s fish business and encyclopedia sales ventures.
Frustrated with the complexity of pricing different items, Yano launched Daiso in 1977, pioneering the concept of fixed-price retailing where everything was priced at 100 yen (equivalent to $0.67 today).
Benefiting from economic conditions marked by stagnant wages and prices, Daiso’s range of products, spanning from practical to whimsical, quickly gained popularity, leading to the ubiquitous presence of its outlets across Japan.
Expanding beyond Japan’s borders, Daiso ventured into international markets starting with Taiwan in 2001. Today, the company boasts 5,350 stores globally, with 990 of them located outside Japan, as per its website.
Reflecting on his journey, Yano once shared, “I have failed many times… But I kept going because I thought there was nothing else I could do.”