Masatoshi Ito was born on April 30, 1924, in Tokyo to Senzo and Yuki Ito, who ran a dry items store known as Yokado.
In 1944, contemporary out of highschool, Mr. Ito spent a quick interval within the Japanese army and at a Japanese firm earlier than becoming a member of Yokado, which he took over in 1956 after the loss of life of his older brother. In 1958, he based the corporate that may go on to grow to be Ito-Yokado and, in 2005, Seven & I.
In 1961, as Japan continued to recuperate from the destruction of World Conflict II, Mr. Ito traveled to america and there “skilled a form of cultural shock at how wealthy everyone appeared,” he stated in a 1988 interview with The Journal of Japanese Commerce and Business. He added, “I grew to become significantly acutely aware of the sheer dimension of America’s client society and the distribution methods that made all of it doable.”
Satisfied that Japan would quickly comply with the identical improvement path, Mr. Ito devoted himself to constructing a series of supermarkets impressed by the American mannequin. He started making common journeys to the U.S., and by the Seventies Ito-Yokado had grow to be one among Japan’s high retailers, going public in 1972.
However the firm’s destiny modified eternally the subsequent yr, when a younger government, Toshifumi Suzuki, traveled to the U.S. in quest of new enterprise alternatives. Satisfied that smaller retailers like 7-Eleven might be the way forward for Japanese retail, he talked Mr. Ito into taking of venture on the operation. They opened a small store in Tokyo’s Toyosu neighborhood in 1974.
Earlier than lengthy, shops started opening up throughout Japan, introducing new concepts about the way to run retail operations, together with using franchising to increase market share and instituting 24-hour operations.
By the late Nineteen Eighties, Ito-Yokado had grow to be a Japanese enterprise empire with tremendous shops, department shops, a nationwide chain of Denny’s eating places and greater than 4,000 7-Elevens, all producing over $12 billion in annual gross sales.
