Founder 7-Eleven Dies, This Is The Trace Of Masatoshi Ito, Japan's Retail King

Illustration 7-eleven (Photo: Doc. Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The owner of the famous Japanese retail empire 7-Eleven, Masatoshi Ito passed away on Friday, March 10. He died at the age of 98.

Seven & I Holdings, which gained control of the 7-Eleven majority, the company it founded, confirmed the death in a statement on Monday. It was not stated where he died.

citing NYTimes, Jakarta, Tuesday, March 13, Ito started his retail business with a family-owned clothing store in Tokyo. He then founded Ito-Yokado, a wholesale chain that became one of the most valuable retail kingdoms in the world, making him admired by domestic and foreign management experts.

Perhaps his biggest contribution to modern Japan began in 1973, when a young executive persuaded him to bring 7-Eleven to the country. Starting with a shop in Tokyo, the deal he made with the owner of his original outlet, the Dallas-based Southland company.

The first 7-Eleven store launched a revolution in Japanese retail that would change everything from the way companies move their products to the way people eat.

The introduction of ready-to-eat Nasi Kepal which was put on the store shelves in 1978 made snacks simple but a central part of the country's fast food culture.

In the following decades, 7-Eleven and their imitators opened tens of thousands of convenience stores across Japan, providing a variety of goods and services.

Trademark is not 24 hours a day throughout the year as a characteristic that is inseparable from everyday life. So the government declared it part of the national infrastructure.

Under Mr. Ito, Japan's 7-Eleven quickly grew bigger than its ancestors, Southland. In 1991, Ito-Yokado bought controlling shares in American retailers, making them Japanese companies.

But that success quickly turned into a scandal, and Mr. Ito resigned in 1992 in response to allegations that Ito-Yokado had paid off individuals from Japan who threatened to disrupt its annual meeting.

Mr. Ito later became the honorary chairman of the parent company 7-Eleven, Seven & I, where he continued to exert a significant influence on the company's operations. There are currently more than 80,000 7-Elevens worldwide, with more than 21,000 in Japan.

Masatoshi Ito was born on April 30, 1924 in Tokyo from the couple Senzo and Yuki Ito, who runs a dry goods shop called Yokado.

In 1944, just graduated from high school, Ito spent a short time in the Japanese military and in a Japanese company before joining Yokado, which he took over in 1956 after the death of his older brother. In 1958, he founded a company that later became Ito-Yokado and, in 2005, Seven & I.

In 1961, when Japan continued to recover from the collapse of World War II, Ito traveled to the United States and there experienced some kind of cultural surprise about how rich everyone is.

"I became very aware of the large number of American consumers and the distribution techniques that made it possible for all of them," he said during an interview in the past.

Convinced that Japan will soon follow the same development path, Ito devoted himself to building a supermarket chain inspired by American models. He began regular trips to the US, and in the 1970s Ito-Yokado had become one of Japan's top retailers, going public in 1972.

But the company's fate changed forever the following year, when a young executive, Toshifumi Suzuki, traveled to the US to find new business opportunities. Convinced that small shops like 7-Eleven could be Japan's retail future, he persuaded Ito to bet on the operation. They opened a small shop in Tokyo's Toyosu neighborhood in 1974.

Shortly thereafter, shops began to open across Japan, introducing new ideas on how to run retail operations, including the use of franchises to expand market share and institutionalize 24-hour operations.

In the late 1980s, Ito-Yokado had become a Japanese business empire with super stores, department stores, Denny restaurant national chains, and more than 4,000 7-Eleven, all of which resulted in annual sales of more than $12 billion.

In 1989, Japan's 7-Eleven took over a franchise operation in Hawaii which was a popular destination for Japanese tourists, many of whom expressed disappointment because American stores were not comparable to Japanese outlets.

A little more than a year later, when American 7-Eleven owner Southland faced a financial collapse, Ito-Yokado reached a $430 million deal to buy 70 percent of the company's shares.

"Ito wants to buy the operation because he is afraid that the company's management, which he considers bad, will damage the brand in Japan," he told Nikkei Business in an interview in 1996.

However, the victory was short-lived. In 1992, Tuan Ito announced that he was resigning as president of Ito-Yokado after three executives at the company were accused of paying payments to the company's search artists threatening to disrupt the company's annual meeting.

Replaced by his student, Tuan Suzuki, Mr. Ito was not seen by the public for several years before reappearing in the late 1990s, when he was appointed chairman of the honorary Ito-Yokado.

In 2005, the company became Seven & I, combining the name of the department with the first initials of its predecessor. Ito remains the head of honor until his death.