Shirokiya was one of Japan's oldest companies, as well as the largest retailer during the early 20th century. In the 1950s, it was purchased by another Japanese corporation and began an expansion overseas, primarily in Hawaii. However, in 2001, the company was largely dissolved. Today, the only remnant of the original company is the Shirokiya department store in Honolulu, a division of Shirokiya Holdings, LLC, a United States-based corporation.
Shirokiya, Inc. (the store) is overseen by a seven-person board, all of whom own a part of Shirokiya's parent company, Shirokiya Holdings, LLC. The CEO and President is Japanese native Koji Hayashi, who also oversees the few functions of the company that still remain in Japan. Director and Store Manager Walter Watanabe, as well as the remaining directors, oversee the bulk of the operations, also serving as store senior management.
Whatever their private opinions of Christianity, Japanese shopkeepers are ardently in favor of Christmas. Tokyo's great Shirokiya's stores—rebuilt in glass and concrete after the earthquake of 1923—held a special Christmas sale last week. Colored lights hung from the balconies. On the third floor there was a huge Christmas tree, loaded with celluloid ornaments. Price tags on every table called attention to Shirokiya's bargain day—the managers are proud of the fact that they were the first store in Japan to adopt the one price system, now employ 1,300 people. There was a short-circuit in the Christmas tree. Flames crackled among the celluloid ornaments, then jumped to a counter piled with celluloid toys, which exploded. The building was fireproof, but its rotunda made an excellent chimney. From the third floor to the roof roared a mushroom of flame and smoke.
A thousand people were in the building. All but a few hundred on the two lower floors were trapped by the flames. Screaming crowds rushed to the roof where the management had installed cages of live lions, monkeys, bears and a little shrine to Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy. Fortunately employes had had a weekly fire drill. There were no fire escapes in the building, but each department was provided with collapsible canvas chutes known as "lifesacks" down which people could slide to the streets. Quick-witted clerks on the fifth floor saved many lives by twisting a life-rope from an enormous bolt of cotton cloth. Miss Hisaya Yoshida, the president's agile secretary, crawled six floors down a drainpipe to safety, nearly fainted as another girl fell to her death from the fifth.
Outside the building every fire crew in Tokyo was at work but there was not a fire ladder in the city tall enough to reach the roof. Army planes swooped overhead trying to drop ropes to the milling crowds on the roof. A battalion of troops with fixed bayonets held back hysterical crowds that blocked traffic in the heart of Tokyo for three hours. Slowly, painfully most of those trapped in the building were lowered down ropes to the street. At nightfall police checked up: 14 dead, over 100 injured, property damage estimated at $4,000,000.
SHIROKIYA INCORPORATED 401K RETIREMENT SAVINGS PLAN is a Defined Contribution Plan which has an account specified for the individual employee where a defined amount is being contributed to the plan by the individual, the employer or both. Examples of this type of plan are 401(k), 401(a), Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), Savings Plans and Profit Sharing Plans.
An Alternate Payee can be awarded a portion of the Employee's account pursuant to a QDRO. The Plan will establish a separate account for the Alternate Payee, and offer the Alternate Payee the same investment opportunities that are available for other participants. If the Alternate Payee chooses, it is usually possible to transfer the funds awarded to an IRA or other tax qualified account of his/her choice. By using a QDRO to award funds from this type of plan, early withdrawal penalties are avoided, and the Alternate Payee will be held responsible for the taxes on any distribution he/she receives from the Plan.
Under most plans, it is possible to award the Alternate Payee a portion of the Employee's account balance as of a specific date (i.e. 50% of the account balance as of July 7, 2000), plus any investment gains or losses attributable thereon from that date until the date the Alternate Payee receives a distribution from the Plan.
Since this type of plan affords for an Alternate Payee to receive an immediate lump sum distribution, the terms of the QDRO are much simpler than the provisions contained in QDROs for other types of plans.
Hikotaro Omura opened a dry goods store at Nihonbashi in Edo, (now Tokyo) in August 1662. Omura called the store Shirokiya Gofukuten, a name that would last until the 20th century. Over the next few hundred years, the store slowly expanded, and as Japan entered the Meiji era, Shirokiya and its main rival at the time, Mitsukoshi, expanded into selling clothing and other goods in 1886. In 1903, Shirokiya opened a western-style department store, followed by the creation of a larger store down the street eight years later.
The turning point for Shirokiya were a series of natural, financial and man-made disasters that devastated the company's fortunes. The first was an earthquake in 1923 that completely destroyed the original department store building. This was followed up a few years later by a major fire on December 16, 1932, which destroyed the larger building and caused 14 fatalities. Finally, Shirokiya's assets, mainly centered in Tokyo, were devastated during World War II and the following occupation of Japan, whereas Mitsukoshi, spread throughout the nation, fared better.
By 1958, Shirokiya was clearly on the downturn; despite the use of innovative marketing techniques common in the west but unheard of in Japan, Mitsukoshi had a commanding lead on the retail industry. In order to protect itself from a hostile takeover, Shirokiya agreed to be absorbed into the Tokyu Group, a railway company expanding into the retail industry at that time. Shortly afterwards, the Shirokiya name disappeared from Japanese life.
However, in a surprise move, Tokyu in July opted to take a $23 million loss, selling the company to the seven highest-ranking executives of the store for the amount of $1 (one dollar). The deal, which included the rights to build a future expansion at Tokyu's lone remaining Hawaii asset, the Shirokiya Department Store at Ala Moana Shopping Center, ensured the survival of Shirokiya, though there were some reports in the Japanese media about the loss of one of Japan's oldest companies to the U.S.
The newly-formed Shirokiya Holdings acted immediately, by streamlining the operations and assets, and the renegotiation of the lease on the remaining store. On November 17, 2002, Shirokiya reopened its doors to great fanfare and then-Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano declaring the day to be "Shirokiya Day". The following year, on July 14, 2003, Shirokiya Holdings reported a net sales of $35 million.
Shirokiya, Inc. (the store) is overseen by a seven-person board, all of whom own a part of Shirokiya's parent company, Shirokiya Holdings, LLC. The CEO and President is Japanese native Koji Hayashi, who also oversees the few functions of the company that still remain in Japan. Director and Store Manager Walter Watanabe, as well as the remaining directors, oversee the bulk of the operations, also serving as store senior management.
Whatever their private opinions of Christianity, Japanese shopkeepers are ardently in favor of Christmas. Tokyo's great Shirokiya's stores—rebuilt in glass and concrete after the earthquake of 1923—held a special Christmas sale last week. Colored lights hung from the balconies. On the third floor there was a huge Christmas tree, loaded with celluloid ornaments. Price tags on every table called attention to Shirokiya's bargain day—the managers are proud of the fact that they were the first store in Japan to adopt the one price system, now employ 1,300 people. There was a short-circuit in the Christmas tree. Flames crackled among the celluloid ornaments, then jumped to a counter piled with celluloid toys, which exploded. The building was fireproof, but its rotunda made an excellent chimney. From the third floor to the roof roared a mushroom of flame and smoke.
A thousand people were in the building. All but a few hundred on the two lower floors were trapped by the flames. Screaming crowds rushed to the roof where the management had installed cages of live lions, monkeys, bears and a little shrine to Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy. Fortunately employes had had a weekly fire drill. There were no fire escapes in the building, but each department was provided with collapsible canvas chutes known as "lifesacks" down which people could slide to the streets. Quick-witted clerks on the fifth floor saved many lives by twisting a life-rope from an enormous bolt of cotton cloth. Miss Hisaya Yoshida, the president's agile secretary, crawled six floors down a drainpipe to safety, nearly fainted as another girl fell to her death from the fifth.
Outside the building every fire crew in Tokyo was at work but there was not a fire ladder in the city tall enough to reach the roof. Army planes swooped overhead trying to drop ropes to the milling crowds on the roof. A battalion of troops with fixed bayonets held back hysterical crowds that blocked traffic in the heart of Tokyo for three hours. Slowly, painfully most of those trapped in the building were lowered down ropes to the street. At nightfall police checked up: 14 dead, over 100 injured, property damage estimated at $4,000,000.
SHIROKIYA INCORPORATED 401K RETIREMENT SAVINGS PLAN is a Defined Contribution Plan which has an account specified for the individual employee where a defined amount is being contributed to the plan by the individual, the employer or both. Examples of this type of plan are 401(k), 401(a), Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), Savings Plans and Profit Sharing Plans.
An Alternate Payee can be awarded a portion of the Employee's account pursuant to a QDRO. The Plan will establish a separate account for the Alternate Payee, and offer the Alternate Payee the same investment opportunities that are available for other participants. If the Alternate Payee chooses, it is usually possible to transfer the funds awarded to an IRA or other tax qualified account of his/her choice. By using a QDRO to award funds from this type of plan, early withdrawal penalties are avoided, and the Alternate Payee will be held responsible for the taxes on any distribution he/she receives from the Plan.
Under most plans, it is possible to award the Alternate Payee a portion of the Employee's account balance as of a specific date (i.e. 50% of the account balance as of July 7, 2000), plus any investment gains or losses attributable thereon from that date until the date the Alternate Payee receives a distribution from the Plan.
Since this type of plan affords for an Alternate Payee to receive an immediate lump sum distribution, the terms of the QDRO are much simpler than the provisions contained in QDROs for other types of plans.
Hikotaro Omura opened a dry goods store at Nihonbashi in Edo, (now Tokyo) in August 1662. Omura called the store Shirokiya Gofukuten, a name that would last until the 20th century. Over the next few hundred years, the store slowly expanded, and as Japan entered the Meiji era, Shirokiya and its main rival at the time, Mitsukoshi, expanded into selling clothing and other goods in 1886. In 1903, Shirokiya opened a western-style department store, followed by the creation of a larger store down the street eight years later.
The turning point for Shirokiya were a series of natural, financial and man-made disasters that devastated the company's fortunes. The first was an earthquake in 1923 that completely destroyed the original department store building. This was followed up a few years later by a major fire on December 16, 1932, which destroyed the larger building and caused 14 fatalities. Finally, Shirokiya's assets, mainly centered in Tokyo, were devastated during World War II and the following occupation of Japan, whereas Mitsukoshi, spread throughout the nation, fared better.
By 1958, Shirokiya was clearly on the downturn; despite the use of innovative marketing techniques common in the west but unheard of in Japan, Mitsukoshi had a commanding lead on the retail industry. In order to protect itself from a hostile takeover, Shirokiya agreed to be absorbed into the Tokyu Group, a railway company expanding into the retail industry at that time. Shortly afterwards, the Shirokiya name disappeared from Japanese life.
However, in a surprise move, Tokyu in July opted to take a $23 million loss, selling the company to the seven highest-ranking executives of the store for the amount of $1 (one dollar). The deal, which included the rights to build a future expansion at Tokyu's lone remaining Hawaii asset, the Shirokiya Department Store at Ala Moana Shopping Center, ensured the survival of Shirokiya, though there were some reports in the Japanese media about the loss of one of Japan's oldest companies to the U.S.
The newly-formed Shirokiya Holdings acted immediately, by streamlining the operations and assets, and the renegotiation of the lease on the remaining store. On November 17, 2002, Shirokiya reopened its doors to great fanfare and then-Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano declaring the day to be "Shirokiya Day". The following year, on July 14, 2003, Shirokiya Holdings reported a net sales of $35 million.
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