The company was founded as Men's Shop Ogori Shoji in 1949, and formally incorporated as Ogōri Shōji Co., Ltd. in 1963 by Hitoshi Yanai.

[4] In 1984, the company, which ran a menswear store in Ube, Yamaguchi, opened a new casual-wear store named Unique Clothing Warehouse in Hiroshima City; this was the forebear of Uniqlo.

[5] In September 1991, Ogori Shoji changed its name to Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., and was listed on the Hiroshima Stock Exchange in July 1994.

[5] In February 1999, it was listed on the first section (large companies) of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In 2007, it unsuccessfully offered a bid of US$900 million for Barneys New York department store to the Jones Apparel Group.