is the president of Benesse Corporation

Benesse

is a Japanese company which focusses on correspondence education and publishing. Based in Okayama-City, it is the parent company of Berlitz Language Schools, which in turn is the parent company of ELS Language Centers...

, a Japanese company best known for its distance learning and test preparation schools. In 2006, Fukutake - who has a net worth of over 1.2 billion US dollars - was ranked among the top ten richest people 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...

 by Forbes magazine

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

.

Fukutake's father founded Benesse, a corporation whose schools (commonly referred to as or "cram schools") train children to pass entrance exams to allow admission to prestigious schools and universities. Some four million Japanese children between the age of 3 and 18 are enrolled at Benesse schools. Despite the graying trend in the Japanese population, Benesse sales hit a record high of $2.5 billion and net profits jumped 52% to $124 million for the fiscal year ending March 2005.

Fukutake received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Waseda University

Waseda University

, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...

. He maintains residences in Okayama, Japan  and elsewhere in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. A modern art

Modern art

Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...

 lover, Fukutake is also the director of the Chichu Art Museum

Chichu Art Museum

The is a museum built directly into a southern portion of the island of Naoshima in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. It was designed by architect Tadao Ando and opened its doors to the public on July 18, 2004.-Background:...

 on the southern island of Naoshima

Naoshima, Kagawa

is an island town administratively part of Kagawa District, Kagawa, Japan located in the Seto Inland Sea. As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 3,583 and a density of 251.97 persons per km². The total area is 14.22 km²....

 in the Inland Sea region of Japan.