TAKEMITSU TAKIZAKI, the founder of electronic-sensor maker Keyence Corp., has overtaken Uniqlo billionaire Tadashi Yanai to become Japan’s richest person.

Takizaki is worth US$38.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after his company’s shares almost doubled since the start of last year. Fast Retailing Co.’s Yanai, who’s lost more than a fifth of his wealth in 2021, has a net worth of US$35.6 billion.

It’s an example of how the wealth landscape is shifting amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as a factory-automation entrepreneur replaces a retail mogul at the top of the country’s rich list. Keyence has also been boosted by its forthcoming inclusion in Japan’s blue-chip equity index, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average.

“This positioning is likely to stay for a while,” Mitsushige Akino, a senior executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, said of the wealth ranking. “The big factor recently was being added to the Nikkei 225.”

Takizaki founded Keyence in 1974 and steadily built the company as a maker of sensors, measuring instruments, machine-vision systems and other equipment for industrial automation. The secretive Osaka-based firm is known for its high profit margins and for paying its staff well.

Keyence’s shares have risen 96 percent since the start of 2020, giving the company a market value of about US$167 billion. By this measure, it’s the second-largest firm in Japan after auto giant Toyota Motor Corp.

The pandemic spurred demand for factory automation as governments around the world imposed social-distancing measures, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Takeshi Kitaura. He pointed to the company’s operating profit margin of more than 50 percent.

Keyence shares jumped last week after the company was announced as an addition to the Nikkei 225 in a major shakeup of the famous equity gauge.

Takizaki, 76, who didn’t attend college, helped invent the precision sensors used on assembly lines such as those to build cars for Toyota. He’s now Keyence’s honorary chairman after stepping down as chairman in 2015.(SD-Agencies)