Genshiro Kawamoto
Japanese businessman (born 1932) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Genshiro Kawamoto (川本 源司郎, Kawamoto Genshiro, born 1932) is a Japanese businessman known for his real estate investments in Japan, California and Hawaii.[1] He is also notable for controversial real estate investments in the late 1980s, when he bought more than 170 properties, including many Oʻahu homes.[2] More recently, Kawamoto is known for owning 30 properties in the Kāhala area of Honolulu where he has allowed them to be run down, attracting many complaints and media attention.[3] Although these homes are vacant, boarded up and often vandalized, their estimated total value is $200 million.[3] In September 2013, Kawamoto sold all of his Hawaii assets to Alexander and Baldwin for $128 million. The transaction was brokered by Steve Sombrero, president of NAI ChaneyBrooks.[4]
Born into a wealthy kimono shop owner's family in what is now Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, he went to Keio University, but did not graduate.[5]