Hisao Nagata

Hisao Nagata is the founder and chairman of Trial Holdings, a discount supermarket chain with interests in retail IT and developing AI systems. His son Hiroyuki is a director.

Nagata's father, Oumi, opened a thrift store called Asahiya in 1974 in Fukuoka, which Hisao took over in 1981. Three years later, he changed the name to Trial Company and also started a software developer focusing on retail.

Trial has developed technology to decrease labor costs and increase efficiency, including self-checkout shopping carts and AI-powered cameras to gather shopper behavior data and monitor inventory.

Trial has over 600 stores in Japan and posted $5.2 billion in revenue in the fiscal year ended in June 2025.

In March 2024, Trial was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Growth bourse.