The first store of “Uniqlo,” a warehouse-type casual wear store in the southern part of Hiroshima’s ..

The first store of “Uniqlo,” a warehouse-type casual wear store in the southern part of Hiroshima’s Hondori shopping district, opened in 1984. The store had 30,000 pieces of stock piled up, most of which were priced between 1,000 yen and 1,900 yen. Although it was a bit far from the city center, it welcomed customers with its various product compositions, low prices, and diligence to open at 6 a.m. Morita Ikuo, who was appointed as Uniqlo’s first store manager, said, “I thought it was an interesting idea because it was a unique store, but I was skeptical that customers would really come,” adding, “Honestly, at first, I thought it wouldn’t work out.”

Contrary to these pessimistic expectations, Uniqlo was crowded with customers trying to preoccupy the product as soon as it opened, and within hours of opening, it fell out of control. Chairman Tadashi Yanai shouted this at the time, as reported by a local radio station. “It’s hard to come into the store even if you come now. I’m very sorry, but please don’t come to the store anymore!” Despite the desperate plea, the crowd did not decrease, but rather increased further.

The new book “Uniqlo” is a biography of Tadashi Yanai, the founder of First Retailing, who created Japan’s world’s largest SPA brand, Uniqlo. Storytelling vividly shows how a small tailor shop in a rural coal mine village inherited from his father has grown into a world-class company. The author, a journalist and editor of Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun, interviewed Yanai himself, his family and close acquaintances, and former and current employees who played a decisive role in creating today’s Uniqlo.

Chairman Yanai inherited his father’s shop because there was nothing he wanted to do. He was called such a genius that he graduated from Waseda University, a prestigious university in Japan, but after graduation, he returned home only lazy without any plans. Ogori Corporation, run by his father, was a small tailor shop located in the shopping district of Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, a declining coal mine town. The employees who worked for a long time were not happy with Yanai and eventually scattered and only one remained. Since then, the days of lackluster progress have continued without clear results. Would my wife have asked me to return my youth?

The longer it took, the more hungry Yanai became for success. In the process of finding answers without giving up, Ogori Corporation has evolved into a casual wear warehouse, a suburban store, and now Uniqlo. Clean and spacious store, simple and easy design, affordable price and reliable quality…. Uniqlo guarantees customers a certain level of satisfaction with their purchases no matter where they visit stores around the world, including Japan, Korea, and the United States. This is why Uniqlo can be called the “daily clothing of people around the world.”

However, Uniqlo has not been on a roll all the time. The second store, which opened one after another, recorded a disastrous performance that was close to failure, and employees who traveled to Hong Kong to find a production consignment plant spent time in vain without finding customers in the region dominated by famous fashion brands such as Levi’s.

Now, Uniqlo is trying to transform itself from a fashion brand to an information manufacturing and retail business. The author said, “Uniqlo was, in a nutshell, a series of failures. In other words, anyone can achieve what they want if they don’t give up, he said. “Uniqlo’s story emphasizes how important it is in modern management to recognize crises and quickly change adaptability.”

[Reporter Song Kyung Eun]