Japan's 40 Richest
Kiyoe Minami 05.07.08, 10:00 PM ET

Japan's 40 wealthiest businesspeople are worth $89.9 billion, up $10.7 billion from last year. An impressive gain but one that masks an uneven year for the country's tycoons. Twenty people are richer than last year, including eight of the top 10, helped by the yen's double-digit gain against the U.S. dollar. Six added more than $1 billion apiece to their fortunes.

The biggest gainer was the country's new No. 1, the retired and now largely low-profile Nintendo chairman, Hiroshi Yamauchi, whose net worth soared $3 billion in the past year and has tripled since 2006, thanks mostly to booming sales of the Wii gaming device. Close behind him is last year's richest member on the list, property developer Akira Mori, who gained $2.2 billion but not enough to stay on top.

Japan's 40 wealthiest businesspeople are worth $89.9 billion, up $10.7 billion from last year. An impressive gain but one that masks an uneven year for the country's tycoons. Twenty people are richer than last year, including eight of the top 10, helped by the yen's double-digit gain against the U.S. dollar. Six added more than $1 billion apiece to their fortunes.

The biggest gainer was the country's new No. 1, the retired and now largely low-profile Nintendo chairman, Hiroshi Yamauchi, whose net worth soared $3 billion in the past year and has tripled since 2006, thanks mostly to booming sales of the Wii gaming device. Close behind him is last year's richest member on the list, property developer Akira Mori, who gained $2.2 billion but not enough to stay on top.

Three former billionaires return to the ranks. They are construction tycoon Katsumi Tada, who apparently received a bid from U.S. Aetos Capital and Akira Mori's company earlier this year for his Daito Trust Construction; Akira's brother Minoru, who is building Shanghai's biggest tower; and Kagemasa Kozuki, whose Konami gaming company makes videogames for Sony's (nyse: SNE - news - people ) PlayStation and Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Xbox.
In Pictures: Japan's 40 Richest

Three newcomers debut, including the list's youngest member, Mixi's 32-year-old founder, Kenji Sahara. He is the first under-40 member of Japan's rich list since 2005, when former Internet entrepreneur Takafumi Horie last appeared on the list (he was later sentenced to jail for violating securities law).

Other newcomers are Yokyu Kanazawa and his brothers, who together own Sanyo Bussan, a $2 billion (sales) maker of pachinko machines; and steel-parts magnate Hiroyuki Inoue, who grabbed the last spot with a net worth of $715 million, $105 million more than last year's minimum. Inoue's company Yamato Kogyo, founded by his father, is a member of Forbes Asia's 2007 list of 200 Best Under a Billion companies.

On the gloomier side, six people from the 2007 list failed to make the cut, and 14 are poorer, mostly because of falling stocks (the Nikkei index is down 20% since then) and plunging profits at a number of rich-list-owned companies. Two dropouts were Toichi Takenaka, whose Takenaka construction company's consolidated profits fell by two-thirds for fiscal 2007 because of fewer orders and higher costs, and Kenshin Oshima, head of consumer loan outfit SFCG, whose market value was halved. Sega Sammy's Hajime Satomi just barely makes the list, as his company's stock also tanked.

Another factor that could hold the group back is the graying of Japan's richest citizens along with the country's population. By 2030, one-third of all Japanese will be over 65. The average age of the country's 40 wealthiest is 66. That makes the group quite a bit older than the youthful tycoons of China, India and even South Korea. Indeed nine octogenarians rank among the top 40, three more than two years ago.

Only three females qualify for this year's top 40: Hiroko Takei, who inherited her fortune from her late husband; Chizuko Matsui, whose husband turned her grandfather's brokerage firm into a leading online securities firm; and Keiko Erikawa, chairman emeritus of videogame developer Koei. Erikawa, the list's only self-made female, shares a $720 million fortune with her husband, who co-founded the company with her.

Unlike the Billionaires List, which tries to home in on individuals, Japan's top 40 includes such families as the Kinoshita brothers and Kanazawa and his brothers. For people with publicly traded fortunes, net worths were calculated using April 25 stock prices and exchange rates. For people with privately held fortunes, we estimated what companies would be worth if public.

Japanese volcano erupts
Mar 13, 2011 3:01 PM | By Sapa-AFP
A volcano in southwestern Japan erupted Sunday after nearly two weeks of relative silence, sending ash and rocks up to four kilometres (two and a half miles) into the air, a local official says.

It was not immediately clear if the eruption was a direct result of the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked northern areas Friday, unleashing a fierce tsunami and sparking fears that more than 10,000 may have been killed.

The 1,421-metre (4,689-feet) Shinmoedake volcano in the Kirishima range saw its first major eruption for 52 years in January. There had not been any major activity at the site since March 1.

Authorities have maintained a volcano warning at a level of three out of five, restricting access to the entire mountain.

In April last year, the eruption of the Eyjafjoell volcano in Iceland dispersed a vast cloud of ash, triggering a huge shutdown of airspace that affected more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers.

8.9-magnitude quake triggers devastating Japan tsunami

TOKYO — Japan was struck by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, unleashing a 13-foot tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicenter.

A tsunami warning was also issued for Hawaii and the Pacific Coast of the U.S.

In various locations along Japan's coast, TV footage showed massive damage from the tsunami, with dozens of cars, boats and even buildings being carried along by waters. A large ship swept away by the tsunami rammed directly into a breakwater in Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture, according to footage on public broadcaster NHK.

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Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks floating in water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass appeared to have collapsed into the water.

Kyodo news agency said there were reports of fires in the city of Sendai in the northeast.

Officials were trying to assess damage, injuries and deaths from the quake but had no immediate details.

The tremor was felt as far away as Beijing, China.

The quake that struck at 2:46 p.m. local time (12:46 a.m. ET) was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, including a 7.4-magnitude one about 30 minutes later. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) upgraded the strength of the first quake to a magnitude 8.9, while Japan's meteorological agency measured it at 7.9.

Citing USGS data, NBC News reported that if the 8.9 reading is correct, it would be the fifth-strongest earthquake since 1900.

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Image: A tsunami hits Kamaishi city port in Japan
Huge quake triggers devastating Japan tsunami

Updated 3 minutes ago 3/11/2011 7:57:23 AM +00:00 Japan was struck by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, unleashing a 13-foot tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings. Full story
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Several sharp aftershocks struck later Friday afternoon.
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The meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for the entire Pacific coast of Japan. NHK was warning those near the coast to get to safer ground.

The quake struck at a depth of six miles, about 80 miles off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 240 miles northeast of Tokyo.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said a tsunami warning was in effect for Japan, Russia, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas. A tsunami watch has been issued for Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Hawaii.

The earliest that hazardous waves could hit Hawaii is 2:59 a.m. local time, said the agency, based in Ewa Beach, NBC station KHNL reported.

Fear, damage in Tokyo
In downtown Tokyo, large buildings shook violently and workers poured into the street for safety. TV footage showed a large building on fire and bellowing smoke in the Odaiba district of Tokyo.

In central Tokyo, trains were stopped and passengers walked along the tracks to platforms.

Airports in the region were closed and Tokyo's fire department reported several people were injured when a roof caved in at a graduation ceremony in the city, SkyNews reported.

Footage on NHK from their Sendai office showed employees stumbling around and books and papers crashing from desks. It also showed a glass shelter at a bus stop in Tokyo completely smashed by the quake and a weeping woman nearby being comforted by another woman.

Thirty minutes after the quake, tall buildings were still swaying in Tokyo and mobile phone networks were not working. Japan's Coast Guard has set up task force and officials are standing by for emergency contingencies, Coast Guard official Yosuke Oi said.

"I'm afraid we'll soon find out about damages, since the quake was so strong," he said.

Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.
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Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore.

Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds were watching and pointing to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, "They're still shaking!," "Are they going to fall?"

Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit.

"The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn't believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo."

A police car drove down Hitotsugi Street, lights flashing, announcing through a bullhorn that there was still a danger of shaking.

The Tokyo stock market extended its losses after the quake was announced. The central bank said it would do everything to ensure financial stability.

Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.