Japan Keeps Hold on Billionaire List’s Top Spot : Wealth: But the U.S. is home to the largest number of the super-wealthy on the Forbes list.

NEW YORK —  A Japanese real estate tycoon has edged out a fellow countryman for the title of world’s richest person, but the United States is still home to more billionaires than any other country, Forbes magazine says.

Taikichiro Mori, 87, whose Tokyo real estate holdings are worth about $15 billion, beat out Seibu Railway magnate Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, 57, who had topped the magazine’s annual list for four years.

But in its July 22 issue, Forbes cautioned that Tsutsumi’s wealth, valued at more than $14 billion, is held through a 40% stake in a holding company, Kokudo Keikaku.

Forbes said it does not know who owns the other 60%, and there’s speculation it may be Tsutsumi himself. If so, he’s worth about $35 billion and would far and away be the world’s richest person.

The United States can boast of 64 billionaires, with a total net worth of $207 billion, the magazine said.

Ranking second was Japan, with 41 billionaires, collectively worth more than $126 billion. Germany followed, a close third with 40 billionaires.

Sam Moore Walton and his family weighed in with $18.5 billion. Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart stores, would be the world’s wealthiest man had he not opted to split his fortune a few years ago among family members.

The du Pont family made the list, with coffers stuffed with about $10 billion, as did the Hearsts, the Rockefellers, the family of the late Walt Disney and Canadian brothers Paul, Albert and Ralph Reichmann, developers of the giant Canary Wharf commercial property in London.

The wealthiest American individual to make the list was John Werner Kluge of Metromedia, with an estimated $5.6 billion.

Other Americans making their perennial appearances on the list are Barbara Cox Anthony and Anne Cox Chambers, the Dorrance family of Campbell Soup fame, publishers Samuel I. and Donald Newhouse and investor Warren E. Buffett.

Other well-known names on the list are Italy’s Benetton family, the clothing makers who have added the Prince tennis racket company and a 50% stake in U.S. skate maker Rollerblade to their holdings; Robert Maxwell, the British publisher who this year bought New York’s Daily News, and cable television network owner Ted Turner.

Missing from this year’s list are Kuwait’s Al-Ghanim and Al-Kharafi families. The state of their finances is cloudy in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion, Forbes said.

Two of the billionaire fortunes on the list--Pablo Escobar Gaviria and three Ochoa brothers--were made by smuggling cocaine from Colombia.

Escobar turned himself in to the Colombian government last month after being assured that he would not be extradited to the United States. The Ochoas are languishing in jails in Bogota, Forbes said.

The World’s Richest The world’s richest people with a net worth of $2.5 billion or more, according to Forbes magazine:

1. Taikichiro Mori, Japan, $15 billion.

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, Japan, over $14 billion.

3. Sam Moore Walton and family, United States, $18.5 billion.

(Lower because total includes other family members.)

4. Du Pont family, United States, $10 billion.

5. Hans and Gad Rausing (brothers), Sweden, $9 billion.

6. Kitaro Watanabe, Japan, over $7 billion.

7. Reichmann brothers, Canada, $7 billion.

8. Forrest E. Mars and family, United States, $6.8 billion.

9. Kenneth Roy Thompson, Canada, $6.8 billion.

10. Kenkichi Nakajima and family, Japan, $6.1 billion.

11. Shin Kyuk-ho, South Korea, over $6 billion.

12. John Werner Kluge, United States, $5.6 billion.

13. Takenaka family, Japan, $5.4 billion.

14. Haniel family, Germany, $5.3 billion.

15. Barbara Cox Anthony and Anne Cox Chambers,

United States, $5.2 billion.

Dorrance family, United States, $5.2 billion.

Samuel I. and Donald E. Newhouse, United States,

$5.2 billion.