was a Japanese businessman who founded the sports-equipment company

Yonex () is a Japanese sports equipment manufacturing company. Yonex produces equipment and apparel for tennis, badminton, golf, and running. Its range of products manufactured and commercialised includes equipment for badminton and tennis (rackets, ...

, one of the world's top producers of

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

rackets as well as

golf clubs A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety ...

. He was awarded the President's Medal by the Badminton World Federation in 2015.

Biography

Yoneyama was born on 15 October 1924 in

Koshiji, Niigata was a town located in Santō District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 14,160 and a density of 242.30 persons per km². The total area was 58.44 km². On April 1, 2005, Koshiji, along with ...

(now part of Nagaoka), Japan. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he served in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

in a suicide unit whose task was to ram boats filled with explosives into American ships. However, he did not receive an order to execute a mission before his capture by the Americans in

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, where he was subsequently held in a prison camp. After his release at the end of the war, Yoneyama made floats for

recreational fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing fo ...

starting in 1946. When business slumped, in 1957 he began making rackets for badminton, which was becoming popular in Japan at the time. He incorporated Yoneyama Company the following year. In 1963, the company's racket factory burned down, but Yoneyama was able to set up a new plant and resume production in only three days. The company branched into tennis rackets in 1969 and golf clubs in 1982. It was renamed as Yonex in 1982 and relocated to Tokyo. Yonex signed contracts with some of the world's top tennis players such as Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova and

Kimiko Date is a Japanese former professional tennis player. She reached the semifinals of the 1994 Australian Open, the 1995 French Open and the 1996 Wimbledon Championships, and won the Japan Open a record four times. She reached a career-high ranking ...

. As the company diversified under Yoneyama's leadership, he still paid close attention to badminton, inking a sponsorship agreement with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) in 1988 and signing badminton greats such as

Rudy Hartono Rudy Hartono Kurniawan (born Nio Hap Liang (); 18 August 1949) is an Indonesian former badminton player holding the record of winning the men's singles title at the All-England Championship eight times, seven times consecutively from 1968 to 1974 ...

and Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen as brand ambassadors. The company became one of the world's top producers of tennis and badminton rackets and golf clubs. In 2015, Yoneyama was awarded the BWF President's Medal for his "extraordinary services to the sport". The medal was presented by Høyer, who was by then the president of BWF. Yoneyama died on 11 November 2019 at a hospital in Niigata, aged 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoneyama, Minoru 1924 births 2019 deaths Japanese company founders People from Nagaoka, Niigata Japanese prisoners of war Japanese military personnel of World War II