, based in Kobe, is one of the largest supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 chains in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. In 1957, Isao Nakauchi

Isao Nakauchi

was the founder of Daiei.- Life and career :Isao Nakauchi served in the Philippines as an infantryman during World War II. His business empire started in Osaka 1957 and it led to the creation of "American-style" supermarkets in Japan. In 1972 he led the biggest retailer in Japan, one that owned a...

 founded the chain in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 near Sembayashi Station

Sembayashi Station

is a train station on the Keihan Electric Railway Keihan Main Line located in Asahi-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.Opened in 1910, the station is famous for its long covered shopping street known as the Sembayashi Shōtengai. The shopping street even has a theme song that can be heard as you...

 on the Keihan train line. Daiei is now under a restructuring process supported by Marubeni Corporation

Marubeni

is a Japanese trading company, one of the largest general trading companies in Japan.-Offices:*Head Office - 4-2, Otemachi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan*Head Office -20-6, Shiba 5-chome, Minato, Tokyo, Japan...

 and ÆON Co., Ltd.

ÆON

, commonly written AEON Co., Ltd., is the holding company of Æon Group. It has its headquarters in Mihama-ku, Chiba, Chiba Prefecture.It operates JUSCO supermarkets directly in Japan.Æon is the largest retailer in Asia...

, another Japanese supermarket chain. Daiei Inc. currently runs more than 3,000 stores under the Daiei name as well as through its subsidiaries.
In addition to groceries, Daiei is also a department store, selling electronics, home furnishings, and clothes. In terms of net sales, Daiei used to be the largest retailer in Japan. However, total sales declined by nearly a quarter in the five years leading up to 2003.

The retail chain expanded rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s. Also, stronger sales from competitors such as Ito-Yokado

Ito-Yokado

is a Japanese General Merchandise Store, part of Seven & I Holdings Co. There are 174 Ito-Yokado stores operating in Japan. The group has expanded to China, where they formed a joint venture with Wangfujing Department Store and China Huafu Trade & Development Group Corp. to open one of five stores...

, ÆON, and other regional supermarket chains have hurt Daiei's sales record in recent years.

As a part of the series of bootstrap restructuring efforts to avoid filing for IRCJ (Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan) support, the company sold its famous and popular baseball team, the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks

The are a Japanese baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. The team was bought on January 28, 2005 by the SoftBank Corporation.The team was formerly known as the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks. In 1988, Daiei bought the team from Osaka's Nankai Electric Railway Co., and its headquarters were...

 to Softbank

SoftBank

is a Japanese telecommunications and internet corporation, with operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-Commerce, Internet, broadmedia, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses....

, on January 27, 2005 and the company's Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 stores in 2006 to Donki

Don Quijote (store)

is a discount chain store that has over 160 locations throughout Japan as well as three stores in Hawaii. It carries a wide range of products, from basic groceries to electronics to clothing. The store is well known in Japan and is often referred to by its shortened name .-History:Don Quijote...

. Through the process of debt restructuring

Debt restructuring

Debt restructuring is a process that allows a private or public company – or a sovereign entity – facing cash flow problems and financial distress, to reduce and renegotiate its delinquent debts in order to improve or restore liquidity and rehabilitate so that it can continue its...

 and support given by financial institutions in coordination with IRCJ, the company has been acquired by IRCJ, Marubeni Corporation (a trading company) and Advantage Partners (a private equity house) in 2005.

Daiei's current President and CEO is Toru Nishimi, formerly an operating officer of Marubeni Corporation.

External links

• Daiei Inc. (In Japanese)
• "'Zombie' Businesses", The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...