Yoshiaki Tsutsumi

Who is Yoshiaki Tsutsumi?

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi is a Japanese businessman. During the Japanese economic bubble in the late 1980s, Tsutsumi was the wealthiest person in the world for a brief period due to his extensive real estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled. 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.

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.

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. He also 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.