Billionaire Uniqlo founder and CEO wants his successor to be a woman

Successor will become CEO of the third-largest clothing retailer in the world

Billionaire CEO of Uniqlo wants his successor to be a woman (Getty)

The billionaire founder of Uniqlo has revealed that he would prefer his successor to be a woman - because they'd be better suited to the role than another man.

During an interview published this week, Tadashi Yanai, the CEO and founder of Uniqlo and its parent company Fast Retailing Co, told Bloomberg: “The job is more suitable for a woman.”

According to Yanai, whose success has made him the richest man in Japan with a net worth of $24.9bn (£20.2bn), according to Forbes, he hopes his successor is female because “they are persevering, detail-oriented and have an aesthetic sense”.

One potential option could be Maki Akaida, who is currently in charge of Uniqlo’s Japan operations.

When asked whether Akaida, who joined the company in 2001, would take on the role of CEO, Yanai told the outlet: “It's a possibility”.

The 70-year-old also said that he wants to increase the ratio of female senior executives in the company to more than half, after the company completed its goal of filling more than 30 per cent of its management positions with women in 2018, according to Bloomberg.

The company currently has six women in executive roles.

Yanai started the Japan-based clothing company in 1984 from his father’s tailoring shop. Since then, the company has become a global brand, as well as the largest clothing retailer in Asia.

Currently, Fast Retailing, which made $18.9bn (£15.3bn) in revenue in 2018, is the third-largest clothing retailer in the world, behind H&M and Zara’s parent company Inditex, according to MoneyWeek.

Despite Yanai’s commitment to gender diversity, Japan is still globally behind when it comes to employing women in management positions, with only 4.1 per cent of “executive titles at publicly traded firms in the country” held by women.

According to the World Economic Forum, Japan was ranked 110th for the Global Gender Gap Index of 2018, with women making 24.5 per cent less than men in the same roles.