Tadashi Yanai

Yanai was born in Ube, Yamaguchi, in February 1949. He attended Ube High School and later Waseda University, graduating in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in economics and political science. His uncle was an activist for the minority group known as Burakumin, who have continued to suffer caste-based discrimination in employment and marriage in modern Japan.

In 1971, Yanai started in business by selling kitchenware and men's clothing at a JUSCO supermarket. After a year at JUSCO, he quit and joined his father's roadside tailor shop. Yanai opened his first Uniqlo store in Hiroshima in 1984, and changed the name of his father's company Ogori Shoji to Fast Retailing in 1991.

He has stated: "I might look successful, but I've made many mistakes. People take their failures too seriously. You have to be positive and believe you will find success next time."

In 2019, Yanai stepped down from the board of Softbank after 18 years as an independent director at the Japanese technology conglomerate.

He is the son of Kanichi Yanai and Hisako Mori Yanai. Yanai is married and has two sons, Kazumi and Koji, and lives in Tokyo. In 2018, Yanai's son Koji launched the Tokyo Toilet Project, which later became the basis of the film Perfect Days. He lives in a $50 million, 16,586-square-foot house outside of Tokyo and owns two golf courses in Hawaii.

In March 2011, Yanai donated 1 billion yen to victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. In 2015, Yanai founded the Yanai Tadashi Foundation, which awards full scholarships and additional income to Japanese high school students admitted to selective colleges in the United States and the United Kingdom. As of September 2025, 310 Japanese high schoolers have received the award.

Yanai is a major donor to the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2014, he donated $2.5 million to establish the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities in partnership with Yanai's alma mater Waseda University. In 2020, he gave an additional $25 million to endow the initiative. In 2024, he donated another $31 million to the initiative.