# Daiso Industries
**Daiso Industries Co., Ltd.** (株式会社大創産業) is a Japanese fixed-price retail operator founded by [Hirotake Yano](https://www.edgepedia.org/hirotake-yano) (矢野博丈), headquartered in [Higashihiroshima](https://www.edgepedia.org/higashihiroshima), Hiroshima, and known for its DAISO chain of 100-yen shops. For the fiscal year ending February 2026 it reported consolidated sales of ¥771.0 billion, a record for the 15th consecutive year, from 5,891 stores in 26 countries and regions.[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) The company is unlisted and does not disclose profit figures.[2](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC226E30S6A620C2000000/)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Incorporated | December 1977 (as 株式会社大創産業, from Yano Shoten)[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) • [3](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/02/20/daiso-hirotake-yano-dead/) |
| Founder | Hirotake Yano (1943–2024), died of heart failure in February 2024 at age 80[4](https://apnews.com/article/100-yen-store-yano-daiso-founder-dead-abd96c9efa572525970c7c984e643b69) |
| President | Representative Director and President Yasuji Yano (矢野靖二)[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) |
| Sales (FY ending Feb 2026) | Consolidated ¥771.0 billion; standalone ¥698.3 billion, both records[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) |
| Stores (end Feb 2026) | 5,891 worldwide: 4,784 in Japan and 1,107 overseas, in 26 countries and regions[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) |
| Brands | DAISO (5,006 stores), Standard Products (249), THREEPPY (636); about 58,000 products across the three brands[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) |
| Listing | Unlisted; capital ¥2.7 billion; profit not disclosed[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) • [2](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC226E30S6A620C2000000/) |
## Founding and Hirotake Yano
Hirotake Yano founded the street-vending business Yano Shoten in 1972, running it from a stall.[3](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/02/20/daiso-hirotake-yano-dead/) Yano Shoten had no fixed store; the mobile operation borrowed space at agricultural cooperatives and independent shops to display its goods.[5](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/history)
The company's own history dates the 100-yen uniform price to this mobile-truck selling period. Pressed for time while unloading and unable to check individual price slips, Yano told customers "100円でええ" (100 yen will do); the company presents this improvised answer as the moment the 100-yen uniform-price model was born.[5](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/history) The name [Daiso](https://www.edgepedia.org/daiso) came from Yano's aspiration to build a "big" (大) company with ¥100 million in annual sales.[5](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/history)
The dates of the chain's beginnings are reported differently. In 1977 Yano Shoten was renamed and incorporated as 株式会社大創産業, and the company's history treats the [Takamatsu](https://www.edgepedia.org/takamatsu) store, opened as the first directly operated outlet, as the starting point of chain expansion.[5](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/history) AP and The Japan Times, writing after Yano's death, report that the business began working with 100-yen stores in the 1980s and opened its first store under the Daiso name in 1991, when full-fledged ¥100 store expansion began, coinciding with the bursting of Japan's economic bubble.[4](https://apnews.com/article/100-yen-store-yano-daiso-founder-dead-abd96c9efa572525970c7c984e643b69) • [3](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/02/20/daiso-hirotake-yano-dead/)
## The 100-yen business model
A Harvard Business Publishing case study on the company describes two mechanisms. First, about 99 percent of Daiso's products were privately branded, though only a small fraction were internally manufactured. Most items (98 percent) were priced at 100 yen.[6](https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/GS90-PDF-ENG) Second, the case examines the point-of-sale (POS) technology that helped Daiso build a highly efficient delivery and restocking system and to streamline the "treasure hunt" or discovery retail model, in which a rotating assortment encourages repeat visits.[6](https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/GS90-PDF-ENG)
The pure 100-yen price has since given way to multiple price tiers. Standalone sales rose 8 percent to ¥676.5 billion for the fiscal February 2025 results, the fifth consecutive annual increase since the fiscal-year change in 2020.[7](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC176PE0X10C25A6000000/) The three brands now carry about 58,000 products under the motto "感動価格、感動品質" (moving prices, moving quality).[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf)
## Scale and operations
By January 2016 Daiso was the largest 100-yen shop operator in Japan, with nearly 2,900 stores in Japan and 1,400 stores in 26 other countries, and had generated $3.5 billion in sales for the fiscal year ending March 2016.[6](https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/GS90-PDF-ENG)
The most recent figures are substantially larger. For the February 2026 fiscal year, consolidated sales rose 6 percent year on year to ¥771.0 billion, while non-consolidated sales rose 3 percent to ¥698.3 billion.[2](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC226E30S6A620C2000000/) Store numbers rose by 221 to 5,891, roughly 80 percent in Japan and 20 percent overseas, including the United States, Thailand, and New Zealand.[2](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC226E30S6A620C2000000/) The brand mix at the end of February 2026 was DAISO 5,006 stores, Standard Products 249, and THREEPPY 636.[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf)
Daiso remains privately held. Nikkei notes the company is unlisted and discloses no profit figures; the first consolidated sales figure it disclosed was ¥724.2 billion, for the February 2025 fiscal year.[2](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC226E30S6A620C2000000/) • [7](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC176PE0X10C25A6000000/) Growth in store count now leans on small-footprint formats: on 26 June 2026 the company announced its three brands had passed 6,000 stores domestically and internationally, aided by "compound stores" and "register-flow" concessions (レジ流し) that place DAISO selling floors inside supermarkets and home centers.[8](https://straightpress.jp/company_news/detail?pr=000000334.000039955)
## Overseas expansion
The first US store opened in Seattle in 2005, and expansion has since reached Brazil, the UAE, and Australia.[4](https://apnews.com/article/100-yen-store-yano-daiso-founder-dead-abd96c9efa572525970c7c984e643b69)
The multi-brand strategy reached the United States in April 2025, when Daiso opened the first three-brand combined store in the country at Bohl Farm Marketplace in Illinois.[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) By the end of February 2026 overseas stores numbered 1,107, of which 1,051 carried the DAISO name.[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf)
## Leadership change and recent developments
The Japan Times reports that Yano's son Seiji Yano took over as company president in 2018.[3](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/02/20/daiso-hirotake-yano-dead/) The company's current official records, as of 2026, name Yasuji Yano (矢野靖二) as Representative Director and President.[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf)
Yano died of heart failure in February 2024 at age 80, at a time when the company ran more than 5,000 shops in 26 nations and regions with sales of more than ¥580 billion (about $4 billion) in the latest fiscal year.[4](https://apnews.com/article/100-yen-store-yano-daiso-founder-dead-abd96c9efa572525970c7c984e643b69) Growth continued after his death: the February 2025 and February 2026 fiscal years both set sales records,[1](https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf) • [7](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC176PE0X10C25A6000000/) and the store network passed 6,000 in June 2026.[8](https://straightpress.jp/company_news/detail?pr=000000334.000039955)
## References
1. 大創産業 前期 連結売上高7,710億円、世界5,891店舗を達成 (News Release, FY2025 results), https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/5e4bd60e1175ec7a8e6d42e44fadcde1.pdf
2. 「ダイソー」の大創産業、売上高6％増の7710億円 26年2月期 (Nikkei), https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC226E30S6A620C2000000/
3. Hirotake Yano, founder of ¥100 chain Daiso, dies at 80 (The Japan Times, 20 February 2024), https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/02/20/daiso-hirotake-yano-dead/
4. Hirotake Yano, founder of Daiso, dies at 80 (AP News), https://apnews.com/article/100-yen-store-yano-daiso-founder-dead-abd96c9efa572525970c7c984e643b69
5. 大創・大回想 | DAISO（ダイソー）公式企業サイト, https://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/history
6. Daiso of Japan: The Dollar Store (Harvard Business Impact Education case study), https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/GS90-PDF-ENG
7. 「ダイソー」の大創産業8％増収 25年2月期、出店増で (Nikkei), https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC176PE0X10C25A6000000/
8. 大創産業、国内外の総店舗数が6,000店舗を突破！ - STRAIGHT PRESS, https://straightpress.jp/company_news/detail?pr=000000334.000039955
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Economics and business › Founders, operators, and investors › Consumer, industrial, and services founders › Japan and Korea*
*Initially written Sep 19, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license