Who was Forbes’ richest person in 1987, when its first global billionaire list was published?

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was Forbes’ richest person in 1987, when the magazine published its first global billionaire list.

Tsutsumi was a Japanese businessman associated with the Seibu railway and real-estate empire. Forbes placed him at the top of its inaugural ranking, reflecting the enormous property values and corporate assets connected with Japan’s economic boom during the 1980s.

The first Forbes World’s Billionaires list appeared in 1987 and contained 140 billionaires. It represented a major change in wealth journalism because it attempted to compare fortunes internationally rather than focusing only on one country. Calculating private-company and property wealth was particularly difficult.

Tsutsumi’s listing is often overlooked because later rankings became dominated by familiar American technology and finance figures. Japan’s property market subsequently suffered a severe collapse after the late-1980s asset bubble, changing the country’s place in global wealth rankings.

The list’s methodology and coverage have expanded substantially since 1987.