Takenori Osawa

Takenori Osawa is president of Fashion Core Midwest Inc., the company behind influential multi-brand retailer Midwest. Osawa is a second-generation leader of the business founded by his father Masaru Osawa in 1976. The family grew Midwest beyond its roots in Nagoya, Japan’s fourth-largest city and the centre of the Chubu region, into a three-city network, adding a multi-storey boutique in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighbourhood and another in Osaka’s buzzing Umeda district. Since taking the reins in 2021, Osawa has expanded Midwest’s existing stores and opened a fourth location in 2026, the retailer’s fiftieth anniversary year, in the Haera complex in Nagoya’s Sakae district.

As a prominent buyer and long-term partner of the Tokyo Fashion Award, Osawa has extended his industry influence by providing early retail support to multiple generations of independent Japanese brands, from Maison Mihara Yasuhiro to Fetico. That approach builds on Midwest’s longstanding role as a launchpad for independent fashion talent, with the retailer having stocked local and international labels such as Doublet and Matières Fécales before their breakthroughs, alongside brands including Maison Margiela and Rick Owens. Maintaining a strict commercial model focused on full-price sell-through, Osawa champions craft-driven labels over mainstream luxury, with local shoppers accounting for most of Midwest’s revenue.