"Donki" Founder Takao Yasuda's farewell message to the world

Tourists flock to Japan’s Don Quijote stores—“Donki”—for cheap snacks, electronics, and quirky finds. Behind this 3 trillion yen market cap retail giant, Pan Pacific International Holdings ("PPIH". Ticker: 7532), is founder Takao Yasuda, a mahjong-hustling visionary now battling terminal cancer at 76.

From Mahjong to Retail Mogul

Takao Yasuda’s journey is anything but ordinary. After college, he joined a real estate firm that tanked in 10 months. For six years since then, he scraped by playing mahjong for cash. In 1978, at 29, he used 8 million yen in winnings to launch “Dorobo Ichiba” (Thieves Market), a mom-and-pop retail store for daily necessities.

Dorobo Ichiba, 1979. Yasuda was age 29

That 8 million yen was the "seed capital" for what is now PPIH, with 655 Japan stores and 779 global outlets, eyeing 4.2 trillion yen in sales by 2035.

Yasuda Moved To Singapore

Yasuda is now worth ~1 trillion yen. Yasuda's shares are managed by a Dutch company, and for the past 10 years he and his Chinese wife, Ma Yaping, have been based in Singapore, Asia's wealthiest city.

Some believe this was done to protect their assets from Japan's inheritance tax, which has a maximum rate of 55%. In 2017, the Japanese government stipulated that in order to exempt overseas assets from inheritance and gift taxes, one must not have a Japanese domicile for 10 years. The aim behind this is to prevent tax evasion.

We once discussed some crazy ways rich Japanese people live in Japan almost tax-free in another article, but those tax-savvy techniques can only work for multi-millionaires and billionaires (in JPY term). A trillionaire like Yasuda is at another level.

Takao Yasuda

Tax optimization is not just a selfish act for the founders of a public company. It can be thought of as safeguarding management stability. As an expert says, "If the Yasuda family had not taken steps to manage their inheritance tax liability, the heirs could have been forced to sell some of their shares to cover the inheritance tax, potentially weakening their control over the company."

A Leader Forged by Suffering

Yasuda’s charisma shines, inspired by struggle. Echoing Nvidia’s Jensen Huang—“Greatness comes from character… formed out of people who suffered”—Yasuda built PPIH, with lots of suffering and character-building along the way, with deep love and respect for PPIH's 10,000+ staff.

Yasuda wouldn't hesitate a second to fire managers who are abusive to the front-line staff.

Donki staff, or "mate", at work

Succession and Hope Amid Cancer

Yasuda takes an enlightened approach toward founding family involvement with PPIH management. His son Yusaku, 24, sits on PPIH board but only as a director with no executive authority. The lesson Yasuda learned from other family-owned businesses was that serious conflicts between the founding family and management could lead to a major governance crisis with potentially devastating consequences for the business.

With management succession streamlined for PPIH and publicly announcing his battle against terminal cancer, Yasuda concludes his latest book saying "Good luck, and good bye!".

He says the following as his farewell message to the world:

"At work and in life, create for yourself an environment where you can always seek the most fun and fulfillment, in pursuit of ultimate freedom."

Yasuda is still very much around, keeping himself busy with business meetings and his scuba diving hobby. He also sometimes thinks his cancer could just "miraculously evaporate away".

Let's hope he wins in his battle against cancer like he won countless mahjong bets and against business rivals.