The founder was a young man when he came up with the idea of a business. The town known as Midgar was without good public management. The political leaders had no way of creating an organized establishment of government that was acceptable to the common people. Since monsters were popular, weapons were needed. Almost no one, then, really knew how to defend themselves, and those who did refused to defend others. Morbid humanity, stereotypical unfortunately.
He came up with the idea of protection for the town's people. Policemen or soldiers really, trained to defend the interests of the people. This was a perfect idea in the mind of the common person. Armed with J. Shinra's weapons, and trained by him, these soldiers or "policemen" would literally patrol the town to keep monsters from invading. Gradually, funds gathered through taxation ideas for his protective services started to devise themselves into the idea of a city. It took years.
J. Shinra started his protection services when he was 18, and struggled past the concepts of him being too young in the eyes of the common folk. Once his protection service was up and running, they willingly paid his "support the policemen protecting you" fees and taxes. Soon, planners and contractors discovered his plans for building an even better way to protect the town of Midgaria...by putting the city on a plate in the sky! It would be the first time anything like this was ever devised! Everyone in the country (nearly) participated in the construction of J. Shinra's dream, "Midgar". Construction took 13 years, but was already a habitat for more than half the country's population in less than six years.
Magnificent was the city, but the conventional coal methods of power seemed outdated. The idea was suggested by Lashenko Palmer that the Moon harvested a far more vast power supply that would be more than worth the cost. Attempt after attempt. Midgar became finished. Rockets were designed and sent into the air, but most never survived the trip. 26 rockets had been fired. None of them made it. Shin-Ra No. 27 was to be next, but the program was halted upon the end of the Midgar-Wutai war.
Yes, you read right, a war. This was what developed the Shin-Ra Corporation, literally giving all political control of the Nation to President J. Shinra. The Mayor that once presided over a land once known as "Midgaria" became nothing more than a bookkeeper in a library with a title that means nothing. Mako power was discovered, and the need to even explore space was abolished.
President J. Shinra married at least once, although possibly a few times--the Shin-Ra News never kept tabs on such a thing. But, it was discovered by accident that the President had a son. Long after his death, it was discovered he also had a daughter. Both of them matched him in his youth image, but by then he was fat and spoiled as many a politician becomes, his hair balding, his face wrinkling. President J. Shinra reached the age of 63 when it all was over for him, killed by one of the creations that he gave the order to create: "Sephiroth."
His first name is something that no one remembers. Much like the names of the 8 sectors of Midgar, and the original name for the Slums of Midgar, "Midgaria"...and it's 8 different sections--simply no one remembers what they were called. Oppression has been like that.
Rufus Shinra said the following, after his father's death, to a group of terrorists known as AVALANCHE: "The old man thought he could rule the world with money. It seemed to have been working. Work for Shinra, get your pay, if a terrorist attacks, the Shin-Ra army will protect you. It seemed perfect from the outside. It looks perfect on the outside, but I do things differently. I'll control the world with fear. It takes too much to do it like my old man. Yes, A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no need to waste money on them...."
President J. Shinra, now deceased, may never have had the chance to see his attacker. He was stabbed in the back. The nearly 7 foot-long sword still remained in his back when he was found, dead, by the head of the Spatial Exploration and Aeronautics Department, Lashenko Palmer...
His funeral, provided by his son in the way that his son wished, was quite a show to be blunt in Rufus' humor. J. Shinra was just dropped into the Junon Cannon, and fired into the sea. Family relations were never something well done in the Shinra family. Enough said.
(Deceased)