Japan's 40 wealthiest businesspeople are worth $89.9 billion, up $10.7 billion from last year. An impressive gain but one that masks an uneven year for the country's tycoons. Twenty people are richer than last year, including eight of the top 10, helped by the yen's double-digit gain against the U.S. dollar. Six added more than $1 billion apiece to their fortunes.

The biggest gainer was the country's new No. 1, the retired and now largely low-profile Nintendo chairman, Hiroshi Yamauchi, whose net worth soared $3 billion in the past year and has tripled since 2006, thanks mostly to booming sales of the Wii gaming device. Close behind him is last year's richest member on the list, property developer Akira Mori, who gained $2.2 billion but not enough to stay on top.

Three former billionaires return to the ranks. They are construction tycoon Katsumi Tada, who apparently received a bid from U.S. Aetos Capital and Akira Mori's company earlier this year for his Daito Trust Construction; Akira's brother Minoru, who is building Shanghai's biggest tower; and Kagemasa Kozuki, whose Konami gaming company makes videogames for Sony's (nyse: SNE - news - people ) PlayStation and Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Xbox.

http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/...0507intro.html

，《福布斯》杂志评选出今年日本40大富豪榜，排在首位的是游戏厂商任天堂公司已退休的前董事长山内溥，Wii游戏机的成功，使其净资产在过去一年大涨了30亿美元，为2006年时的3倍。另外日本最大社交网站Mixi的创始人Kenji Sahara成为最年轻的上榜富豪，他今天只有32岁，是自2005年以来日本首位40岁以下的上榜富豪。40家富豪的平均年龄为66岁，比中国、印度和韩国富豪的平均年龄都大。40家中只有3位女性。40家富豪今年的总资产达到899亿美元，比去年增加了107亿美元。
以下是日本今年40大富豪榜的部分名单（科技公司）：
任天堂的山内溥，排名第一，净资产为78亿美元；
软银集团的孙正义，排名第五，净资产为51亿美元；
电子商务网站乐天的三木谷浩史，排名第八，净资产为38亿美元；
日本光通信国际的重田康光，排名第24位，净资产为12亿美元；
手机生产商京瓷公司的稻盛和夫，排名第32位，净资产为8.9亿美元；