Shin had been hospitalised in Seoul to get medical treatment for various age-related symptoms and passed away Sunday at 4.29pm, Lotte Group said in a statement.
Shin built Lotte into the nation’s fifth-largest chaebol by assets, a group of 95 companies in businesses from department stores to petrochemicals and the Lotte Giants baseball team in the southeastern city of Busan. As his health declined, Shin was assigned a ceremonial role in the company after a push by his youngest son, Shin Dong-bin, who eventually took control of the group amid a family feud that captivated the nation.
Shin stayed on in Tokyo after World War II ended, and with the Japanese rule in Korea. In 1946, after studying chemistry and scraping savings together by delivering milk and newspapers, he started a business in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district producing soaps and pomade. Shin named Lotte after the character Charlotte in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s"The Sorrows of Young Werther.” He said the book and character were loved by people spanning generations and continents, and that he wanted the same for his company, according to Lotte.As the group’s fortunes grew, so did Shin’s wealth and his family’s.