Uniqlo Billionaire Founder Seeks Woman for Successor

70-year old Japanese billionaire founder of Uniqlo, Yanai Tadashi, said he prefers to be succeeded by a woman, in a move he foresees will bode better for the region’s largest retailer.

The job is more suitable for a woman,» said Yanai Tadashi, president and founder of Fast Retailing, which owns Uniqlo as one of its subsidiaries, in a report. «They are persevering, detailed oriented and have an aesthetic sense.

In addition to succeeding the throne, Yanai also highlighted ambitions to increase the female ratio of senior executives to more than half after reaching 30 percent of management positions last year.

On the prospects of Maki Akida, an 18-year female veteran powerhouse that managed stores in Japan and China, becoming the successor, Yanai said It’s a possibility.

Yanai’s expresses his commitments to not only more females in senior positions but also the development of youth and supporting workers in emerging markets. Yet despite the ESG-oriented nature of these remarks, he does not wax lyrical about Fast Retailing’s ethical superiority but rather how such moves are aligned to business needs.

We’re in the business of selling clothes – it’s not so good that we’re old, he said, on youth.

And on worker support, the firm will invest $1.8 million in a partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a United Nations arm, to support factory workers in Indonesia. The ILO will continue exploring ways for Fast Retailing to improve worker protection in other countries where it has contract factories.

If we expand in a place where incomes are not growing, we cannot sell clothes, Yanai said, highlighting Southeast Asia as a key growth market for the firm.