Masatoshi Ito, founder and emeritus president of Seven & I Holdings Co., right, attends the company founding ceremony for new employees in Tokyo, Japan, on March 13, 2014.
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Masatoshi Ito, founder and emeritus president of Seven & I Holdings Co., right, attends the company founding ceremony for new employees in Tokyo, Japan, on March 13, 2014.
Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Masatoshi Ito, the billionaire Japanese businessman who made 7-Eleven convenience stores a staple of the island nation’s culture and consumption, passed away last week. He was 98.
Based on an announcement from Ito .’s companySeven & i Holdings, honorary chairman died of old age.
“We would like to express our deepest gratitude for your kindness throughout his life,” the company statement read.
Formerly known as Ito-Yokado, the company opened the first location of American retail chains in Japan in 1974. In the following decades, 7-Eleven’s popularity exploded in the country.
In 1991, Ito-Yokado buy back the majority of shares within Southland Corporation, the Dallas-based company that owns 7-Eleven, effectively takes control of the chain.
Ito resigned a year later because of alleged payments made by company officials to “yakuza” members. BBC reported. However, he remained connected to the company he founded as the growth of the 7-Eleven business achieved great success.
By 2003, there were over 10,000 7-Eleven stores across Japan. That number doubled in 2018.
Japanese convenience store called konbini To be all over the countrybut the 7-Elevens there may look different from what American consumers are used to.
The sparkling shop supplyamong other things, instant sushi, rice balls called onigiri and a variety of sweets and baked goods. Popular TikTok videos visible to users shopping at 7-Elevens in Japan — and often receive comments from enviable customers in other parts of the world.
At the time of his death, Ito had a net worth of $4.35 billion, according to Forbesmaking him the eighth richest man in Japan.
