Career
He was from the former town of Gokashō, now part of Higashiōmi, in Shiga Prefecture. He was a veteran of the Battle of Imphal during the Burma Campaign of the Pacific War. In 1946, he founded his own company in Kyoto, which made women"s underwear such as bras, girdles and nightgowns.
His company became global after obtaining its current name in 1957, with subsidiaries in United States, France, China, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.
In 1998, the year of his death, his company had a Netto income of 8.2 billion Japanese yen ($612 million United States) with sales of 170 billion yen ($12 billion United States).