Throughout the CCCJ’s second quarter-century, the achievements of one Canadian businessperson in Japan stand out as exceptional. Ken Theriault from Saskatoon opened Japan’s first Costco warehouse in 1999, and has run Costco Japan for all but three years since. Against all odds, Ken has built the Japan operation to 37 warehouses nationwide, making it one of Japan’s leading retailers.

This month, after 30 years with Costco, Ken has stepped down as country manager and retired to Vancouver. Recognizing his visionary leadership, integrity and lasting contribution to the Canada-Japan business community, the CCCJ honored Ken at the recent Gala as first recipient of our Business Legacy Award.

To understand the story behind this, here is a brief account of the unlikely path that brought Ken to Japan and the success he achieved.

From ‘sure to fail’ to ‘last man standing’

In April 1999, when Ken opened Japan’s first Costco warehouse near Fukuoka, everyone predicted failure. Surely, Japanese consumers would never pay for memberships just to shop at an outlet selling huge wholesale packages. Of course they wouldn’t drive 50 kilometers to get there, nor would they take to shopping on concrete floors with huge racks towering over the aisles. The ‘smart money’ was on Costco to fail and to win on the global retail giants then entering Japan, like Walmart, Carrefour, Metro and Tesco.

Cut to April 2025. Decades after every one of those giants had fled Japan, tails between their legs, Ken was getting ready for the grand opening of his 37th warehouse, this one in Minami Alps near Mt. Fuji. As usual, along with other key staff, Ken was on hand by three a.m. for the big opening at eight – only to find that customers were there before him.

“I was blown away,” Ken said, “to see the parking lot filled with people who’d camped out all night to be first in the door. So I told our staff to move it up, and we opened the doors at four. When we told the waiting crowd to get ready, they returned folding chairs and blankets to their cars and came back to the same places in line – no pushing or shoving. That’s Japan for you!”

And that is how popular Costco has become in Japan.

No DNA test needed: it’s Ken’s baby for sure

You only have to follow Ken (at his brisk pace) on a warehouse tour to see who’s the ‘Big Daddy’ at Costco Japan. Soon as they see him, every employee’s face lights up. And you hear, “Ah, Ken-san, konnichi-wa.” Since he has always traveled relentlessly to every warehouse and distribution center, there may be few among Costco Japan’s 14,000 employees have not had at least eye contact with the boss.

“Us Canadian shachos are just kinda like that,” said Sarah Casanova, former CEO of McDonald’s Japan, and like Ken a product of small-town Canada. “We go into the kitchen and talk to the dishwashers… which isn’t so common in Japan.” Similarly, as reported in our March 2025 profile of Alain Bouchard, the Alimentation Couche-Tard founder was famed for visiting thousands of his convenience stores and chatting with staff.

Petit maison sur la prairie

Ken is very much the product of small-town Canada, specifically Montmartre Saskatchewan, a deeply Catholic francophone island amid a sea of anglophones – like those Gauls in the Asterix

comics surrounded by Romans. But as his mother was Ukrainian-Canadian and Orthodox, Ken says he and his seven siblings enjoyed two Christmases a year.

When he was a teenager, the family moved to Saskatoon, where in high school Ken got a part-time job at a Dominion supermarket. Already exhibiting his trademark high energy, Ken put his back into the work and soon drew the attention of management. So even before finishing high school he was promoted to assistant manager. That led him to reconsider plans to become a lawyer. Ken recalls, “I thought, why saddle myself with huge student loans and spend all those years in school when I’m already on the management ladder at Dominion?” And that was it: for 50 years since, Ken has been in groceries.

After the late 1980s demise of Dominion Stores (slogan: “It’s mainly because of the meat”), Ken ended up interviewing with Price Club (then just merging with Costco).

East… then very far East

“Right away, they offered me a job as a warehouse manager,” Ken said, “and gave me the choice of several cities in Eastern Canada. I picked St. John’s Newfoundland, figuring if I’m going to go east, I might as well go as far east as I can. Little did I know then how far east I’d end up!”

That’s how in 1995 the family – Ken, Gwen and sons Ryan and Sheldon – moved from the prairie to “The Rock,” as Newfoundland is known. But they didn’t stay long.

Ken must have done a stellar job opening the new warehouse, because when he went to a Seattle meeting of all North American managers in July 1997, Costco founder Jim Sinegal pulled him aside and asked if he’d like to go to Japan with his son, Mike Sinegal. “Right away I said yes because I just love challenges,” Ken remembers.

Before long the family followed Ken to Japan. A bit later so did his St. John’s right-hand-man, Howard Tulk, a ‘Bayman’ from the Burin Peninsula who’s now in a senior role with Costco Korea.

A cheerful workaholic

From the start Ken threw himself into his Japan mission. “I’m a workaholic,” he admits. But then coming from a farming background as he did, you don’t get far if you’re not a workaholic.

Howard has watched him go for decades: “Ken always goes at it on max power, never stops. But it’s joyful energy. His motto is ‘Head! Heart! Soul! Treat people with respect and good things happen.’ Since everyone he meets, high or low, gets the same warm treatment, that’s helped him open hearts and doors in Japan. Costco Japan employees especially love him.”

That was on display at Ken’s retirement party, held hours before the CCCJ Gala on November 14th. Hundreds of Costco people from all over Japan packed a huge Tokyo ballroom for a parade of tributes and humorous anecdotes. It was an emotional event; tears were shed.

Success has come at a price though. Ken admits that workaholism led to the end of his first marriage. “I was never home,” he says. Now as he heads back to Canada with his elegant second wife Miho, Ken plans to chart a new course: “Number one, I want to spend time with my grandkids. Much as I love Saskatchewan though it’s just too cold so we’re settling in Vancouver. Oh, and we’re going to the Winter Olympics in Milan.”

Ken & Miho flew off on December 1st, but we expect to see them back before too long.