A retail chain famous for low-priced fleece jackets and jeans. The clothes are produced in China. Several years ago, Uniqlo was the rising star of Japanese retail, and Tadashi Yanai, the company’s founder, was heralded as a visionary. In 2002, he ranked twelfth on the Asiaweek list of the top fifty powerful people in the region. “The bigger the casual brand market in a country, the more advanced the society is as a democracy,” Yanai said then. Lately, the brand has lost its luster.