Hiroshi Mikitani

Hiroshi Mikitani (三木谷浩史) (born March 11, 1965) is a Japanese billionaire business magnate and writer. He is the founder and CEO of Rakuten, Inc. He is also the president of Crimson Group, chairman of the football club Vissel Kobe, chairman of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and a board member of Lyft.

Early life and education

Mikitani was born in 1965 and raised in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.[2] His father Ryōichi Mikitani served as Chairman of Japan Society Of Monetary Economics and was a professor at Kobe University.[3] His mother Setsuko was a graduate of Kobe University and worked for a trading company; she had attended elementary school in New York.[2] Through his paternal grandmother, he claims descent from Honda Tadakatsu, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of shogun

Career

Banking

Mikitani worked at the Industrial Bank of Japan (now part of Mizuho Corporate Bank) from 1988 to 1996,[6] with a break from 1991 to 1993 to attend Harvard Business School.[5] He left to start his own consulting group, called Crimson Group.[2] Mikitani has stated that the destruction caused by the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake made him realize he wanted to help revitalize Japan's economy, leading to his resignation from banking and decision to start his own business.[1][5]

Rakuten

In 1996, Mikitani began venturing into the high technology business and started looking at various business models, and decided to launch an online shopping mall.[5] On February 7, 1997, Mikitani founded the e-commerce company MDM, Inc. with three co-founders and US$250,000 of their own money, launching the online marketplace Rakuten Ichiba in Japan on May 1, 1997.[5][7] The company was renamed Rakuten, Inc. in 1999, and Mikitani took it public on the JASDAQ in 2000.[5] In founding the company, Mikitani envisioned an online marketplace focusing on the exchange between buyers and sellers, as a hybrid between eBay and Amazon.com.[8] It started as a small online marketplace with 13 shops and 6 employees, and has since grown into "an e-commerce giant".[9]

Sports team ownership

In 1995, after an earthquake in Kobe caused significant damage so that the city could no longer maintain the Vissel Kobe football club, Mikitani was asked to take over operations of the team. He purchased the team later that year through his company Crimson Group.[2] In 2014 the team was acquired by Rakuten.[13]

In 2004, the Japanese Pacific League, amidst financial difficulties, dropped two teams, leading to a player strike. Mikitani was approached by league officials about putting together an expansion team in Sendai, which would be named the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Mikitani rebuilt, restored and renovated the stadium in Sendai, prior to the team's inaugural season in 2005. The Golden Eagles won the 2013 Japan Series, two years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Sendai and the Tōhoku region.[2]

Kosmos Holding

In 2017, Mikitani partnered with his friend FC Barcelona player Gerard Piqué to co-found Kosmos Holding. A holding company and investment group to invest in companies based in the sports, media, and entertainment industries. In 2018, Kosmos Holding acquired the Davis Cup[14] Tennis property, and Spanish Futbol Club FC Andorra.[15]

birth date	March 11, 1965
birth place	Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
alma mater	Hitotsubashi University Harvard Business School
occupation	Founder & CEO, Rakuten, Inc. (1997-present)
years active	1988–present
spouse	Haruko Mikitani (m. 1993)‡R1R‡
children	2
website	Hiroshi Mikitani Twitter account Hiroshi Mikitani English Twitter account

Early life and education

Career

Banking

Rakuten

Sports team ownership

Kosmos Holding

Keidanren

Philanthropy

Honors and awards

Bibliography

Personal life

References