The Japanese fast-fashion retailer with roots in a 1949 Ube, Yamaguchi business is Uniqlo.
The company’s roots trace to Men’s Shop Ogori Shoji, founded by Hitoshi Yanai in Ube in March 1949. The business was incorporated as Ogori Shoji in 1963 and later renamed Fast Retailing in 1991. The Uniqlo brand itself began later, when its first store opened in Hiroshima in June 1984.
Uniqlo’s name comes from “Unique Clothing,” although a registration mistake in Hong Kong changed the planned “C” to a “Q.” Tadashi Yanai, Hitoshi Yanai’s son, led the transformation from a regional menswear business into a global retailer focused on simple, functional casual clothing.
The 1949 date therefore refers to the predecessor of today’s Fast Retailing and Uniqlo group, not the first store carrying the Uniqlo name. That distinction is the main source of confusion. Uniqlo is often called fast fashion, but its business emphasizes staple garments, long-running product lines, and technical fabrics such as HEATTECH.