He is the owner, founder, and honorary chairman of $30 billion (sales) Ito-Yokado Retailing group, the second largest Retailing organization in the world, which includes more than 10,000 7-Elevens in Japan and the U.S. Mr. Ito built the company from a small apparel store in Tokyo, into a corporation with annual revenues of more than $28 billion and a labor force of more than 125,000. The Ito-Yokado Group includes more than 10,000 7-Eleven stores in Japan and 5,800 in North America, along with 1,000 other stores—department stores, restaurants, specialty shops, supermarkets, and superstores. Ito-Yokado is also the Japanese franchisee for Oshman’s sporting goods stores, Robinson’s department stores, and Denny’s restaurants. Recently the company has begun opening superstores in China.
