Temping agency chief Yoshiko Shinohara becomes Japan's first self-made female billionaire

Yoshiko Shinohara, the 82-year-old founder of multinational temporary work agency Temp Holdings, has become Japan's first self-made female billionaire.

She founded the agency from her one-bedroom apartment back in 1973, and it has since expanded to encompass 313 offices and turn over an annual revenue of over $4.5bn.

Stock in the company has boomed over the last year, according to Forbes, pushing Ms Shinohara – who recently retired as its chair – into an exclusive club.

Originally, the company only employed women, who found flexible, temporary work easier to accommodate alongside caring responsibilities imposed on them by society.

But as the labour market changed, and the company eyed larger profits, Ms Shinohara opened her books to male workers as well. As of 2012, Temp Holdings had 12 overseas offices and employed over 5,000 people.

Counts fluctuate, but there are only around 34 billionaires in the whole of Japan, and perhaps 26 self-made female billionaires across Asia.

“Self-made” means the businesswomen extracted their wealth from the market, rather than inheriting it from a previous generation.

Over 50 per cent of Asian, female billionaires are “first generation” entrepreneurs, compared to less than 10 per cent of their European counterparts.

Ms Shinohara’s Asian counterparts are all based in China or Hong Kong. They include Baidu internet chief Ma Dongmin, property behemoth Lu Qianfang, and so-called “Queen of Trash” Zhang Yin.

Speaking to the Financial Times back in 1973, Ms Shinohara said: “Society was dominated by men with most women working in assistant roles, and there were few opportunities to actively participate.

“It was then I thought I would broaden the workplaces where women could apply their skills, so I launched TempStaff.”