Tadashi Yanai (Forbes)Tadashi Yanai (Forbes)

At least someone is making money these days.

Japan's retail tycoon Tadashi Yanai, whose Uniqlo stores sell affordable apparel, has added $1.4 billion US to his wealth to become Japan's richest person for the first time. He is now worth $6.1 billion and has moved up to No. 1 from No. 6 last year, becoming the fifth person in as many years to take the top spot in Japan.

Yanai's good fortune aside, most of Japan's richest lost money in the past year as the country slipped into a recession, business confidence hit its lowest level in 34 years, and the Nikkei stock index dropped 45 per cent since its June peak.

Japan's 40 Richest are now worth a combined $69.5 billion, down from $89.9 billion in May, when we published the 2008 rankings. Even the soaring yen, which recently hit a 13-year high against the U.S. dollar, couldn't pull up these dollar-based fortunes.

Twenty-eight of the 40 richest lost money, including everyone in the top 10, excluding Yanai. Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi, whose net worth fell by $3.3 billion, slipped from first to third place. Kazuo Okada, who founded pachiko and slots company Aruze, and Yasumitsu Shigeta, who runs telecom provider Hikari Tsushin, have both lost half their fortunes since our last rankings. Another 13 list members declined 25 per cent or more.

Still, there were outperformers in addition to Yanai, including Masahiro Miki, who runs shoe retailer ABC Mart; Chizuko and Michio Matsui, whose online company, Matsui Securities, is doing well in a volatile environment; and the Kinoshita brothers, whose struggling lender became a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial.

Internet entrepreneur's stock soars

The year's richest newcomer is Internet entrepreneur Yoshikazu Tanaka. He debuted his social networking site Gree on Mothers Market for small high-growth stocks in December. The stock is trading at two-thirds above the listing price, with a higher market cap than rival Mixi, run by Kenji Kasahara, who just makes the cut at No. 40 with a net worth of $480 million. Also joining the list are the Tada brothers, who share a stake in discount drug chain Sundrug, and Hirokazu Sugiura, founder of Sugi Pharmacy.

Akio Nitori, who founded discount home furnishing retailer Nitori, returns to the list after a two-year hiatus as his company racks up sales for its low-priced products, many of which are cheaper than those sold at Sweden's Ikea. Another returning retailer is Muneaki Masuda who founded Tsutaya, one of Japan's leading movie-, music- and game-rental chains.

A few individuals are holding their own in troubled industries. The fortune of real estate mogul Minoru Mori (brother of No. 4 Akira Mori) stayed flat at $1.1 billion. Ryoichi Jinnai's Promise, Japan's third-largest consumer lender, cut costs and allied with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group to survive sinking credit markets. His fortune is down only $200 million, to $1.5 billion.

Six from the 2008 rankings missed the cutoff despite the fact that it was $235 million lower than last year. Yoshitaka Fukuda dropped $1.5 billion to $250 million as the stock of his consumer finance company, Aiful, crashed. Ryuji Arai, whose Bic Camera restated earnings and may be fined, lost two-thirds of his fortune.

Unlike our billionaires' rankings, which highlight individual fortunes, Japan's top 40 includes numerous family fortunes. The list was compiled using shareholder and financial information obtained from the families and individuals themselves, stock exchanges and analysts. Stock prices and exchange rates were locked in on Feb. 6. Private companies were valued based on comparison with prevailing price-to-earnings or other financial ratios.