Costa Mesa Farmer Makes Forbes’ List of Most Affluent : Profile: Japanese immigrant Roy Sakioka, whose land holdings are estimated at $325 million, made his fortune in farming and real estate.

COSTA MESA —  Roy Sakioka, a self-effacing man who has made his fortune in farming and development, has never been one to seek publicity.

But in recent years this 92-year-old Japanese immigrant, who lives in a modest Costa Mesa ranch house, has been unable to avoid the spotlight he has shunned for so long.

Last year he donated $100,000 to the White Memorial Medical Center Foundation to show his appreciation of the Los Angeles hospital, which in 1988 implanted a pacemaker in his heart.

And in 1989, then-Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita put the Sakioka homestead on his itinerary when visiting Southern California.

Although the prime minister’s visit was canceled because of rain, his deference to Roy Sakioka reflects the status Sakioka has attained since coming to the United States from Japan in 1916 as a youth in search of opportunity.

And then last week, Sakioka and his family were added to Forbes magazine’s newly published list of the 400 wealthiest individuals and families in the country.

Forbes said that the family, with virtually no debt, has an estimated worth of at least $325 million, including ownership of more than 240 acres in Orange County and 2,600 agricultural, industrial and commercial acres in Ventura County.

The seven other Orange County residents on the list were led by the group’s only billionaire, Irvine Co. chairman Donald L. Bren, with a worth estimated at $1.1 billion.

Then came Harry H. Hoiles, one-third owner of Freedom Newspapers; Claire Eugenia Getty Perry, who inherited from the J. Paul Getty fortune; James D. Slavik, a director of a Skokie, Ill., electrical equipment company; William Lyon, owner of the development company that bears his name; Richard J. O’Neill, who helped develop Rancho Santa Margarita, and George L. Argyros, chairman of Arnel Development.

George Sakioka, Roy Sakioka’s grandson, said the family declined to be interviewed by Forbes about their holdings. George Sakioka contended that the magazine’s estimate of the family’s wealth was too high, failing to consider the adverse effect of the recent recession on real estate values.

Nonetheless, Roy Sakioka, a slightly built man who still is uncomfortable speaking in English, clearly has done very well. Early on he made a mark for himself in farming, employing experimental cross-planting to develop his own strain of celery and becoming one of the first local farmers to ship his vegetables East to get a better price when the Southern California market was saturated.

Although Roy Sakioka considers himself first and foremost a farmer, in large part he has built his fortune by relying on his keen ability to buy and sell farmland in the path of urbanization.

Those who know him marvel at his adroitness in business. In real estate dealings, Roy Sakioka is known as a loner who, after careful study, makes up his own mind and does not rely on consultants. He is notorious for holding out as long as necessary for what he believes is the right price.

Although he says he has been in “semi-retirement” for more than 30 years while other family members have assumed greater roles, business associates of the family say Roy Sakioka still “calls the shots.”

He is the youngest of a family of six children born in a farming village on the small Japanese island of Shikoku. In 1916 he left home to join his oldest brother and his family in Glendale.

Roy Sakioka and his brother farmed land they had leased in Glendale until it was subdivided for houses. They then moved to West Los Angeles, where again they became tenant farmers.

In 1920, Roy Sakioka returned to Japan to marry his childhood friend, Tomio, and bring her to the United States, where they began their family of three boys and three girls.

After war was declared in Japan, the Sakiokas were sent with other Japanese-Americans to the Manzanar internment camp south of Bishop. They stayed there about 16 months until Roy Sakioka heard that there was work for Japanese-Americans harvesting sugar beets in Utah. So they received permission to leave the camp to drive to Utah, with the understanding they could not return to the West Coast until the war ended.

In 1946, the Sakiokas returned to West Los Angeles and resumed farming.

Roy Sakioka began accumulating land, but because of laws preventing Japanese immigrants from becoming citizens and barring non-citizens from buying land, he at first acquired land in the names of his American-born children.

Gradually the family accumulated 80 acres in the Westside area then known as Sawtelle. Ultimately Roy Sakioka sold most of that land and bought more farmland in Culver City, Venice and Gardena that he later swapped for even more acreage in Orange County.

In an interview in 1989, Roy Sakioka said he chose Orange County in 1947 because the county had plenty of open space and the heavy black soil in which celery thrives.

By 1960, the Sakiokas had reached the peak of their landholdings in Orange County, with 1,000 acres in Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach. Since then much of the Sakioka land has been condemned by government agencies for the development of utilities, roads and the Costa Mesa Freeway, or sold or swapped by the Sakiokas for land in Ventura County.

The current 74-acre Sakioka home farm--it is zoned for urban commercial and residential development--stretches from Roy Sakioka’s house on Sunflower Avenue in Costa Mesa to the San Diego Freeway. Nearby, urban centers have taken root on hundreds of acres of former Sakioka farmland.

Yet another 142 acres of strawberry and cabbage fields that the Sakiokas farm in Fountain Valley are to be converted during the next decade into an industrial park.

Roy Sakioka ascribes much of his success to having been “just lucky.” But his closest friends and business associates say he has a special vision and shrewdness that have enabled him to make the most of his opportunities.

Many old-time farmers sold their land when their children entered other occupations. But Roy Sakioka and his children have pulled together, continuing to farm as a way to hang onto their land while it grew in value.

A glutton for work, Roy Sakioka has no interest in the luxuries that generally accompany financial success. He says he has no need for gated communities such as Bel-Air, although he could easily afford them. Instead, he continues to live in a single-story, ranch-style house that he bought in 1955.

Jack Sakioka, his eldest son, said his father originally had planned to make his fortune in the United States and then return to Japan with his family. But long before World War II, Jack Sakioka said, his father decided that America would be the family’s permanent home, although he routinely travels to Japan to visit relatives and friends.

Roy Sakioka has been quietly active in the Japanese-American community, contributing money without fanfare to charities that include a Japanese retirement home in Boyle Heights and the Japanese-American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles.

George Sakioka represents the family in dealings with city governments. A 1981 graduate in economics at UC Irvine, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the UCI College of Medicine Foundation, a support group to the medical school.

Steve Clemons, executive director of the Japan America Society of Southern California, said George Sakioka has been active in the organization’s Orange County chapter since its founding two years ago.

Clemons recalled with amusement how George Sakioka once arrived an hour early with his grandfather to attend a reception given at the Los Angeles home of the consul general of Japan.

“His grandfather said, ‘Let’s not waste time. There is real estate for sale that we could see,’ ” Clemons said. So the two Sakiokas, separated by generations and education, left together to pursue their common goal.

O.C.’s Richest on Forbes 400

Donald L. Bren, 59, Newport Beach, Irvine Co. chairman. Worth: $1.1 billion. Rank: 57.

Harry H. Hoiles, 75, Santa Ana, Freedom Newspapers. Worth: $400 million. Rank: 238

Claire Eugenia Getty Perry, 37, Laguna Beach, inherited from J. Paul Getty fortune. Worth: $365 million. Rank: 271.

James D. Slavik, 39, Irvine, W.W. Grainger Co. electrical equipment. Worth: $350 million. Rank: 293.

William Lyon, 69, Coto de Caza, William Lyon Co. Worth: $350 million. Rank: 295.

Roy Sakioka, 92, Costa Mesa, real estate. Worth: $325 million. Rank: 317.

Richard J. O’Neill, 68, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Margarita Co. Worth: $300 million. Rank: 347.

George L. Argyros, 54, Newport Beach, Arnel Development chairman. Worth: $290 million. Rank: 382.

Source: Forbes magazine’s 1991 list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.