is a Japanese billionaire, and the former chairman of the

Benesse Corporation is a Japanese company which focuses on correspondence education and publishing. Based in Okayama-City, it is the parent company of Berlitz Language Schools, which in turn is the parent company of ELS Language Centers. Benesse is listed on the ...

, a publishing firm and

juku ''Gakushū juku'' ( ja, 学習塾; see cram school) are private, fee-paying schools that offer supplementary classes often in preparation for key school and university entrance exams. The term is primarily used to characterize such schools in ...

company known for its patronage of the arts.

Career

Fukutake inherited Benesse, which his father founded in 1955 as Fukutake Publishing. After his father's death in 1986, he renamed it Benesse (Latin for well-being), and expanded the company, and his family owns 15% of the company. Benesse owns 275 nursing homes in Japan and the Berlitz language schools.

Personal life

Fukutake is married, with one son, and lives in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand.

Art "shrines"

He has created four museums or "art shrines" on the islands of

Naoshima is an island in Japan's Seto Inland Sea, part of Kagawa Prefecture. The island is best known for its many contemporary art installations and museums. The administers Naoshima and 26 smaller islands nearby. As of 2020, the town has an estimated ...

Teshima is an island located in the inland sea of Japan, between Naoshima and Shōdoshima islands, and is part of Kagawa Prefecture. It has an area of and a population of about 1,000 people. Teshima is one of the locations of the Setouchi Triennale, ...

and Inujima in an archipelago in Japan's southern

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka ...

, including the

Chichu Art Museum The (literally 'art museum in the earth') is a museum built directly into a southern portion of the island of Naoshima in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. It was designed by architect Tadao Ando and opened to the public on July 18, 2004. Background T ...

. They have been built in collaboration with the architect

Tadao Ando is a Japanese autodidact architect whose approach to architecture and landscape was categorized by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as "critical regionalism". He is the winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize. Early life Ando was born a few m ...

References

1940s births Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Okayama Prefecture Waseda University alumni Benesse Japanese billionaires 20th-century Japanese businesspeople 21st-century Japanese businesspeople Japanese philanthropists Japanese art collectors Museum founders {{Japan-bio-stub