He’s not yet a household name, nor is he a professional designer, but Fumio Takashima may soon be Japan’s equivalent of the UK’s Sir Terence Conran.

The visionary behind some of Tokyo’s most stylish home furnishings stores – Agito in the buzzing Roppongi Hills complex, the eclectic Bals Tokyo, and the casually chic Francfranc stores – plus nearly 90 more outlets around the country, all under the Bals umbrella, Takashima is trying to spread a vision he calls “value by design”.

“Design is what gives products their value – that is our slogan,” he explains.

Takashima looks every bit the polished chief executive: handsome and fashionably dressed in a mocha-coloured Dolce & Gabbana suit, thin black tie and finely polished brown Gucci shoes. His office in central Tokyo is a curious yet tasteful blend of Asian objects, high-tech gadgets and sleek modern furniture.

Yet he is soft-spoken and casual, with none of the self-importance that might be associated with overseeing a growing retail empire. There’s a large toy robot on the table next to him. And he even seems embarrassed about his outfit: “I usually wear jeans.”

What he isn’t bashful about is his ambitions. Bals is already believed to be the first Japanese furniture retailer to branch out overseas, with a store in Hong Kong and one due to open this year in Taiwan. Over the next 10 years, Takashima wants to open 30 more stores around the world, starting in New York. The aim is to bring modern Japanese style (Bals is an acronym for Basic Art Life Style) to western consumers, many of whom are already fans of Asian exports, including technology and animation. Such expansion is daring. Few Japanese retailers have ventured overseas and had an easy time of it. But the 49-year-old Takashima, who studied economics at university, is confident that his company can succeed on a global stage.

“I think we are a lot more aggressive than [Manhattan design store] Moss or Conran, for example,” he says. “We are a lot more wide-ranging because we focus on designing a person’s total lifestyle, so our stores have things that they don’t. For example, we carry consumer electronics, which they don’t have much of, and we have health and beauty products.”

Takashima stresses that his stores create a different experience for shoppers. “I think retail stores are different from showrooms in that what is important for a retail shop is the interface with customers. For example, the presentation of products in the stores, the service of the staff, the fact that we launch new products in rapid succession, those things are different from [other design and furniture stores]. We launch new products very frequently and we create new images one after another and in that respect I think we are closer to the world of fashion.

“There aren’t that many interior shops that I like,” he adds, without making it sound arrogant. “I think our stores are more fun. They always have something new and inspirational whenever you visit.”

There’s no question that the stores are trendy. Agito, at the luxury end, offers Asian antiques and contemporary European furniture designed by famous names – Henri Becq for Modénature, Piero Lissoni for Living Divani and Patricia Urquiola for Moroso. Bals Tokyo, which was designed by Italy’s Carlo Colombo, is an airy space filled with delightful objects ranging from magnificent, sculptured plants to colourful cushions, marble soap dishes and sharply outlined sofas. Positioned in the middle market, it targets the junior baby boomer generation, “whose lifestyle has changed either due to marriage or children and are relatively well-off”.

Francfranc is more mass-market, offering stylish modern goods, most of which are designed in house, at reasonable prices. These include a series of white kitchen gadgets, a daybed in bright orange and lamps with shades that look like birds’ nests made of silver twigs. Bals also has five stores under the modern Japanese J. (referred to as J period) brand and Koufouro, a home furnishings store based on a Chinese-Korean theme.

All the stores have capitalised on a significant shift in Japanese attitudes about furniture and home accessories. “People have started to think about their lifestyle and they are expressing themselves in everything from fashion to interiors as part of [that],” Takashima says.

Entertaining at home is much more common than it used to be, “so people are more conscious about their furnishings and want to create a space that is not only comfortable for themselves but that others can enjoy too when they come to visit.

“The kind of furniture consumers want is changing very dramatically. People don’t think of sofas as something just for sitting on any more or the dining table as simply something to put dinner on. They are aware of the materials used, the designer’s name, where they bought it and so on. The furniture market [in Japan] won’t grow that much in terms of annual sales [but] I think consumers will continue to shift from traditional-style furniture stores to interior stores like ours that offer a total lifestyle suggestion.”

Foreign retailers, such as Denmark’s Bo Concept and The Conran Shop, are well-established in Japan and others are moving in, with Ikea opening a store in May and smaller, innovative retailers popping up here and there. But “there are still few places that can offer what consumers want,” he says. “That is why companies like ours are growing.”