The Rise and Fall of the Seibu-Saison Empire

It normally takes the 3rd generation to ruin a business empire. The Tsutsumi brothers managed to do that in the 2nd. In fact, Seiji Tsutsumi's Saison-Seibu enterprise as part and parcel of Japan's bubble economy of asset inflation in the 1980s, was built up and collapsed during a few decades of his own business activities alone with him as probably the most spectacular protagonist and ultimately also victim of the profligate years. After a decade of failed rehabilitation attempts, Seiyo, his real estate arm, went down in July 2000 with $5 billion of debts, with Seiji Tsutsumi being forced to divest most of his remaining Saison Group Holdings. His struggling erstwhile avant-garde Seibu Department Store chain had to be merged in 2003 with the equally bankrupt Sogo chain in a desperate attempt by the bankers to somehow rehabilitate both, and to avoid the stigma of bankruptcy which would destroy the remaining brand value of the previously up-market department stores. The Seiyu supermarkets have been swallowed by Wal-Mart since…