Who owns GU?
GU is owned by Fast Retailing (Japan, TSE: 9983).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. Annual Report 2025, 28 November 2025. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇯🇵 Japan, Yamaguchi
- Origin
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- Founded
- 2006
- Category
- Apparel, footwear & accessories › Fashion apparel › Casual & denim
- Parent ticker
- TSE: 9983
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About GU
GU launched in 2006 as a lower-priced, more trend-driven sibling to Uniqlo, aimed at young shoppers in Japan and other Asian markets. It is Fast Retailing's second-largest chain and moves far faster on styles than Uniqlo does. Uniqlo sells long-lived basics, so GU exists to capture the trend-led purchases its main chain deliberately avoids.
Ownership timeline of GU
- Current owner Fast Retailing [1] reported
Where GU sits in Fast Retailing
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Fast Retailing ownership tree →
See the full Fast Retailing brand portfolio (4) →
Other brands owned by Fast Retailing
Fast Retailing controls 4 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in apparel, footwear & accessories.
Also in apparel, footwear & accessories
- Helmut Lang (1986)
- Theory (1997)
- Uniqlo (1984)
Other brands in casual & denim, and who owns them
The 133 brands in casual & denim on Brandtree belong to 59 owners. The largest is Azzas 2154, with 8; Fast Retailing has 4.
About the owner: Fast Retailing
Fast Retailing is a publicly listed company headquartered in Yamaguchi, Japan, founded in 1963. Brandtree records 4 brands under its control, and it is listed as TSE: 9983.
Fast Retailing grew from a single men's clothing shop founded in Yamaguchi in 1963 and is now the third-largest fashion retailer in the world. Its Uniqlo chain competes on engineered fabrics and long product life rather than on trend turnover, which distinguishes it from Zara and H&M.
Fast Retailing: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
🇯🇵 GU and other Japanese brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 448 brands that began in Japan. 22 of them (5%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; GU is not one of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of GU?
The parent company of GU is Fast Retailing, a publicly listed company headquartered in Japan.
Is GU Japanese?
Yes. GU originated in Japan in 2006 and its owner, Fast Retailing, is also headquartered in Japan.
Is GU still owned by Fast Retailing?
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, GU is still owned by Fast Retailing. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. Annual Report 2025 — Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., Annual report, published 28 November 2025; retrieved 16 September 2026.
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