While some sources state that he competed for Japan in wrestling at the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome,[5] he did not, as he had moved from Tokyo to New York City months before the Games.

[citation needed] After he received his associate degree in management in 1963,[7][13] he used the $10,000 he had saved from the ice cream business to convince his father to co-invest in the first Benihana, a four-table teppanyaki restaurant on West 56th Street.

According to family legend, Aoki's father was walking through the bombed-out ruins of post-war Tokyo when he happened across a single red safflower growing in the rubble.

[14] The title changed hands several times, eventually becoming an explicit publication long after Aoki's period of ownership.

[citation needed] Aoki partially funded and crewed the Double Eagle V, the first balloon to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean.

The Double Eagle V launched from Nagashima, Japan, on November 10, 1981, and landed in Mendocino National Forest in California 84 hours and 31 minutes later.

[15] The Double Eagle V's four-man crew consisted of Rocky Aoki with Albuquerque balloonists Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Ron Clark.

He twice won the Benihana Grand Prix in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, sponsored by his own company - the second win came in 1982, three years after his devastating San Francisco crash.

[10] Aoki was placed in deportation proceedings as a result of his guilty plea/conviction, but was granted relief by an immigration judge and his permanent resident ("green card") status maintained.

[4] In 2005, Aoki sued four of his children (Grace, Kevin, Kyle, and Echo) for an alleged attempt to take control of the companies he founded, which, at the time, had an estimated value between US$60–100 million.