Yaohan

Yaohan Co., LTD.
Native name
株式会社ヤオハン
Kabushiki gaisha Yaohan
IndustryRetail
Founded1930 in Japan[1]
1948 (incorporated)
FounderRyohei and Katsu Wada
Defunct1997[2]
FateBankrupt[1]
Most assets acquired by ÆON
Japanese stores became MaxValu; some overseas stores became JUSCO (now ÆON)
SuccessorMaxValu (in Japan)
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Kazuo Wada

Yaohan Co., Ltd. (株式会社ヤオハン, Kabushiki gaisha Yaohan) or Yaohan (ヤオハン, or 八百半); Chinese: 八佰伴) was a Japanese retail group, founded in 1930 by Ryohei Wada (和田 良平, Wada Ryōhei) and his wife Katsu Wada [ja] (和田 カツ, Wada Katsu).[1] Initially a single shop, it was expanded by their son Kazuo Wada into a major supermarket chain with most retail outlets located in Shizuoka prefecture, south of Tokyo. It was incorporated in 1948 and listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange. The store was far more established and notable outside Japan, due to restrictive laws in Japan that made it difficult to set up new businesses, such that by the time it opened its first store in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the company was already in a state of decline due to accumulated debts from over-expansion.

  1. ^ a b c "Japan supermarket giant Yaohan company went bankrupt". Today in History China. 8 July 2019. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference infopedia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).