55세에 대학 교수직에서 은퇴하고, 모리 회사를 세워 1990-91년 포브스지 선정 세계 부자 1위에 오른 모리 타이키치로

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikichiro_Mori

Taikichiro Mori (森 泰吉郎, Mori Taikichirō, 1 March 1904 – 30 January 1993) was the founder of Mori Building Company.

Forbes ranked him as the richest man in the world during 1991-92,[1] with a net worth of $15 billion in 1991 (approximately equivalent to $29.9 billion in today's value[when?]). His sons, Minoru and Akira, headed Mori Building and the Mori Trust, respectively, and his granddaughter Miwako Date now runs the Mori Trust in her father's place.

Biography[edit]

Mori graduated from the Tokyo College of Commerce (now Hitotsubashi University) in 1928. He was appointed Professor at Kyoto Sericulture Technical High School (now Kyoto Institute of Technology) in 1932, and Yokohama Commercial School (now Yokohama City University) in 1946 where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Commerce from 1954 to 1959.[2] While working for the University, he founded the Mori Building Company. After retiring from the University in 1959, he became the president of the Company.

 

 

 

 https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/31/world/taikichiro-mori-tokyo-developer-rated-as-richest-man-dies-at-88.html

Taikichiro Mori, who became the richest man in the world after he quit his position as an economics professor at the age of 55 and built a real estate empire in downtown Tokyo, died yesterday at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 88 years old.

He died of heart failure, a spokesman for his Mori Building Company, said.

Mr. Mori ranked No. 1 on Forbes magazine's list of wealthiest people for the last two years.

His worth in 1992 was estimated at $13 billion. That was $3 billion more than his nearest rival, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a Japanese railway and golf course owner, and double the worth of the richest American, William H. Gates, the founder of Microsoft.

Mr. Mori was known as Tokyo's "ooya-san," a friendly term for landlord. He literally left his mark across the city. Each of his projects displayed his name and the building's chronological place in his growing empire: Mori Building One, Mori Building Two and so on.

A man of modest ways and sedate academic background, Mr. Mori said of his international status, "I find it just a little odd." He said he was thankful for his good fortune, but said that all the attention made him uncomfortable.

Despite his wealth, he lived unpretentiously, customarily wearing a traditional simple black kimono when working at his office, and abstaining from alcohol and tobacco.

The company he founded and headed over the years constructed more than 80 buildings, developing what became a prime area near the Imperial Palace and Government agencies.

Mr. Mori's initial focus was on the Toranomon neighborhood in the Minato ward, where he grew up. It was a residential area of small wooden buildings and narrow, winding streets. Twice he had seen it destroyed, first by the earthquake of 1923 and then by the American bombing in World War II.

Gradually, he helped transform it into a modern urban center of sleek glass, concrete and brick towers.

His development technique was long-range and solicitous of local residents. He bought parcels and discreetly moved in company employees, who became active in community affairs and helpful to their neighbors.

Over 17 years, the Mori company persuaded all 500 residents and merchants to accept his big redevelopment plan. Many were relocated or given apartments in the new project.

As Tokyo flourished as an international business center, Mr. Mori catered to foreign companies and executives looking for modern offices with nearby apartments to eliminate commuting in Tokyo's traffic.

His Ark Hills complex in the 1980's included offices, apartments, shops, a hotel, a concert hall and television studio. His Shiroyama Hills project, another apartment and office complex, opened in December 1991.

Born in Tokyo, Mr. Mori graduated from Tokyo Shoka University, now called Hitotsubashi University, in 1928. After World War II, he taught trade theory at Yokohama City University and became the head of its School of Commerce.

After the death of his father, a rice farmer and merchant who had acquired two buildings, Mr. Mori inherited the modest family business in 1959. The timing was perfect for capitalizing on Japan's great expansion of the next three decades.

Although his prosperity stemmed from Tokyo's enormous growth, Mr. Mori in recent years criticized the city's soaring real estate prices, which have run as high as several thousand dollars a square foot, as grossly excessive and in need of correction.

When Japan's economic boom finally burst last year, his holdings suffered, dropping by $2 billion from their 1991 valuation of $15 billion, but his company seemed secure.

Mr. Mori expressed nostalgic ambivalence about having helped reshape Tokyo's skyline. "We have to change in order to live in the new era," he said.

But he added: "In a way, I feel very sad that the neighborhood has changed this way. In my childhood, the roads were very narrow, and just like a snake who swallowed an egg, they would widen out in places, and children would play hide and seek and spin tops without danger from the traffic as there is today."

He is survived by his wife, Hana; two sons, Minoru and Akira, and a daughter Aiko.

 

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