TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/012389/01238900.020

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 5KB | 96 lines

BUSINESS, Page 46

Joust of the Half Brothers

Two super-rich Tokyo entrepreneurs chase each other's success


    "Cruel is the strife of brothers," wrote Aristotle. The
observation, it seems, applies even in the normally bland and
polite world of Japanese business, specifically in the case of the
Tsutsumi brothers, whose quiet rivalry has led not only to strife
but also to success and enormous wealth. If that is not enough to
inspire a crackling TV mini-series, add the fact that at least one
of their fortunes rests on the graves of shoguns.

    Seiji Tsutsumi, 61, is the dapper, soft-spoken head of the
Seibu Saison Group (1987 sales: $28 billion), a conglomerate of
department stores, supermarkets and service organizations. Yoshiaki
Tsutsumi, 54, square jawed and hard driving, owns the Seibu Railway
group, which operates $400 billion worth of railways, hotels, golf
courses and ski resorts. The two are half brothers and have long
been locked in intense competition. Last fall the conflict broke
into the open when Seiji's Seibu Saison Group acquired the
Inter-Continental hotel chain for nearly $2.2 billion, a challenge
to Yoshiaki's hotel domain.

    "They are as different as water and fire," says a family
friend. Seiji and Yoshiaki are the sons of the late Yasujiro
Tsutsumi, a cantankerous millionaire who became speaker of the
lower house of the Diet after making a fortune in railroads, hotels
and department stores. Nicknamed "Pistol" for his buccaneering
business methods, Yasujiro bought out impoverished aristocrats who
could not pay inheritance taxes during the late '40s and early
'50s, put up hotels on the newly acquired land and cockily called
the hotel chain Prince. The 484-room Tokyo Prince, for example, is
set on the former cemetery of the Tokugawas, the shoguns who ruled
Japan for 265 years before the Meiji Restoration began in 1868.

    When the elder Tsutsumi died in 1964, the two brothers
inherited dramatically different amounts and parts of their
father's empire, parts that fit their sharply divergent
personalities and amounts that apparently reflected the feelings
between father and sons. The cultured and mild-mannered Seiji, the
son of Yasujiro's wife Misao, has established himself as a novelist
and an award-winning poet whose early literary work sometimes
suggested filial embarrassment and even enmity.

    Yoshiaki's life took a less refined path. His mother was one
of Yasujiro's mistresses. This illegitimate son was the favorite,
and he still praises his father as "the greatest entrepreneur I've
ever met." While Seiji was merely given control of a money-losing
department store, Yoshiaki inherited not only the railway and real
estate portions of the empire but also his father's political
clout: he is close to Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, for example,
and backed him in his fight for the leadership in 1987. A rugged
sportsman who owns the national-champion baseball team, the Seibu
Lions, Yoshiaki flies around the country aboard his jet helicopter
to visit his properties and shows up on lists of the world's
wealthiest people. He has an estimated net worth of $18.9 billion,
compared with Seiji's $1.8 billion.

    Originally, Yoshiaki was thought to have more of his father's
no-holds-barred business acumen, but Seiji showed prescience and
boldness in leading the Seibu stores to the forefront of Japanese
retailing. The increasingly astute businessman predicted that
young, affluent Japanese would spend more than their parents and
guessed that they would prefer high-priced, stylish goods. Seiji's
rise has not been totally smooth. In the mid-1970s Yoshiaki rescued
his half brother from ruin when the Seibu Kanko Kaihatsu company,
a leisure, real estate and tourism group, incurred debts of $550
million. The terms of the rescue were never disclosed, and it is
not known whether the help was appreciated or resented.

    Seiji has been one-upped in some family matters as well. One
can imagine his frustration when, in 1964, the younger,
illegitimate Yoshiaki broke tradition and presided over their
father's funeral as chief mourner. Twenty years later, when the
funeral of Yoshiaki's mother was held at Tokyo's Zojo-Ji temple,
a blimp reportedly flew overhead publicizing a newly opened store
belonging to Seiji's group.

    Of the two, Yoshiaki "seems less concerned about the family
past," says a leading Tokyo business writer. He may not see his
brother's steps onto his turf as significant. "It's no use
comparing us. Our philosophies are different, and we are in
different lines of business," Yoshiaki has said.

    But the brothers do seem to see their futures in the same
arena: the rapidly expanding leisure industry. Seiji's Seibu Saison
Group is branching out into hotels and what he calls the
"comprehensive life-style" business. He wants customers at his
stores to be able to buy a traveling bag, put it to use by booking
a package tour, and take out a loan to pay for the journey.
Yoshiaki has his own growth plans: he is looking at the expanding
market in cable television and optical-fiber communications, in
addition to more familiar resort-development projects at home and
abroad. As they cross each other's lines, will one brother decline
to book tours to the other's hotels or choose to contract with a
different cable or communications company? Tune in for future
episodes on the brothers Tsutsumi.