Ryuko Hira
Ryuko Hira (born 30 May 1948) is an Indian businessman born and brought up in the Indian State of Rajasthan with the name Kamalesh Punjabi who later emigrated to Japan, changed his official name to Ryuko Hira, married a Japanese woman, became a naturalised Japanese citizen and settled in Japan. Hira is the owner of HMI Hotel Group, a hotel management company, which operates several prestigious hotels in Japan. The company is headquartered in Kobe, Japan. He is the Chairman of the Indian Commerce and Industry Association of Japan. He is one among the top ten richest Non -Resident Indians. He is also the richest Indian in Japan. In the year 2022, Govt of India honored him with the Padma Shri award for his services in the field of trade and industry. Ryuko Hira is an ardent follower of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Early life. Ryuko Hira was born in Jaipur, Rajasthan in 1948 as Kamalesh Punjabi and attended a Cambridge school in Mumbai. In 1966, at the age of 16, Hira moved to Japan where his family had a business. The family business had started in Yokohama in 1921 as a silk exporter to India and this  company eventually led to the founding of the HMI Group. He studied gemology in the Gemological Institute of America. He had also completed a Certificate Course in Japanese Language at Sophia University, Tokyo. To remain competitive in the global travel and tourism industry, Hira opted for Japanese citizenship in 1976 with the permission of the Indian government. At that time he adopted the new name Ryuko Hira. According to Hira, he "chose a name that can be written in kanji, the Japanese writing system using ideograms (or characters) adapted from Chinese characters. "Hira" stands for the Hira Mountains in Shiga  Prefecture, the place where a Japanese priest gave him his kanji name. Ryu (dragon) and ko (tiger) also stand for Japan and India." Devotion to Sathya Sai Baba. Ryuko Hira is a passionate devotee of Sathya Sai Baba, an Indian guru from Puttaparthi in present-day Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Hira has published a book on Sathya Sai Baba. Positions held. He is holding/has held several positions including the following: