Uwajimaya's Activist CEO Honored -- Moriguchi And Olympic Skater Share Award

Nineteen-year-old Tyler Moriguchi is proud of his father's award, but was looking forward to meeting the other honoree - Olympic gold-medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi.

But it was not to be.

Yamaguchi was at the summer Olympics in Barcelona as a goodwill ambassador when the Japanese-American Citizens League honored her and Seattle's Tomio Moriguchi with its "Japanese American of the Biennium" awards.

The awards to the skating star and to Moriguchi, chief executive officer of Uwajimaya, Inc., were presented earlier this month at the league's national convention in Denver. Yamaguchi was represented by her mother, father and grandmother.

"My son was disappointed," the elder Moriguchi said. "But her parents and grandmother were very nice people. The grandmother was just tickled pink. You could just feel their strong dependence and the family values."

FAMILIES FIRST

If one word can describe Moriguchi, it is family. He spearheaded development of the $7 million Keiro Nursing Home for elderly Japanese Americans, helped create the International District Improvement Association and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards, including a stint as a trustee of the Seattle Community College District.

"I wish the family (meaning his mother, three brothers and three sisters, their spouses, children and grandchildren) was equally recognized," he said of the award. "You can't do this without their support."

But Cherry Kinoshita, longtime Seattle JACL and civil-rights activist, said Tomio Moriguchi was the prime mover in the food firm's growth.

"He was the key person in developing Uwajimaya from a mom-and-pop store to the megamillion-dollar business it is now," Kinoshita said.

Few suspected in 1962 when the late Fujimatsu Moriguchi divided ownership of Uwajimaya among his four sons that the small International District grocery would survive.

But survive and expand it did, to include outlets in Bellevue and Southcenter, wholesale divisions which cater to grocery chains and restaurants, a mail-order business and a food-processing plant.

FORMATIVE YEARS

Born in Tacoma, Uwajimaya's president and chief executive officer spent part of his early childhood in a detention camp for Japanese during World War II.

"The government sent us off for a couple of years" to Tule Lake in Northern California, the 56-year-old executive said. "Fortunately, I was too young to understand what was going on."

After the war, he attended Seattle's Bailey Gatzert and Washington schools and Garfield High School. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington and worked briefly for The Boeing Co. before joining the family business.

And all of Fujimatsu Moriguchi's children but one - daughter Hisako Nakaye, a community college teacher - have been actively involved in the business: the sons - Kenzo, now semi-retired, in the retail division; Tomio, as CEO; Akira, head of distribution, and Toshi, comptroller; and the daughters - Suwako Maeda, nonfoods buyer, and Tomoko Matsuno, now in charge of retail sales.

Tomio Moriguchi's community, civic and business interests are impressive.

The International District Improvement Association helped start the International District Health Clinic, Asian Counseling and Referral Service, Chinese Information and Services Center and Denise Louie Child Care Center.

He is a past president of the Seattle JACL chapter, a former national treasurer of the JACL, a member of the Washington State Advisory Council on International Trade and Development, the advisory board of the International Trade Institute of North Seattle Community College, active in the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and a board member of Seafirst Corp., Seattle First National Bank, Washington Energy Co., the Seattle Foundation and the Pacific Science Center.

Tomio's wife, Lovett, died last year. He also has a daughter, Denise, 16.

CURRENT EFFORTS

His present project is to help create an assisted-living residence for Japanese community members.

"He is an individual who is totally selfless," said Karen Yoshitomi, JACL Pacific Northwest regional director. "That certainly is a value that Japanese-American culture holds dear and that Tomio exemplifies."

If that's what it takes, "I'm not ashamed to be a role model," the elder Moriguchi said.

His son Tyler, a sophomore at Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., didn't come away from the awards ceremony empty-handed. "We got an 8-by-10 autographed picture of Kristi," he said.