Trump Cut From Billionaire’s Tally : Wealth: Japanese railroad and real estate magnate Yoshiaki Tsutsumi tops the annual Forbes ranking again.

NEW YORK — A Japanese developer again topped a list of the world’s richest people, but this year’s billionaire tally has one conspicuous deletion: Donald J. Trump.

Despite the New York developer’s financial troubles, the United States continues to contain the world’s largest number of billionaires--62--according to Forbes magazine. In addition, there are 37 U.S. families with fortunes over $1 billion, Forbes said in its July 23 issue.

In estimates released today, Forbes said the world’s wealthiest person for the fourth-straight year was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, whose railroad and real estate empire includes golf courses, ski resorts and hotels. Forbes estimated his net worth at $16 billion, up about $1 billion from last year.

Forbes’ estimate was far greater than that of rival business magazine Fortune, which put Tsutsumi’s net worth at $3.1 billion last September.

Fortune said the world’s richest person is the Sultan of Brunei, at $25 billion. Forbes doesn’t include heads of state.

Following the 56-year-old Tsutsumi was Japanese developer Taikichiro Mori, a former economics professor who now owns 78 office buildings. Forbes put Mori’s net worth at $14.6 billion.

Third was the family of Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, the third-largest U.S. retail chain. Forbes estimates that the Waltons, who also were third-ranked last year, are worth $13.3 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 1989.

America’s Du Pont family was fourth, with a net worth of $10 billion. Forrest E. Mars and family of the United States, of Mars candy fame, were 10th at an estimated $6 billion.

Other American families with net worth exceeding $3 billion were the Newhouse, Hearst and Cox families, who derive their fortunes from publishing and broadcasting; the Bass family of Texas; the Mellon family of banking fame; the Dorrance family, whose wealth comes from Campbell Soup Co.; and Bill Gates, founder of the computer software company Microsoft Corp.

John Werner Kluge remained the richest American individual, according to Forbes. Kluge, founder of the media company Metromedia, has an estimated net worth of $5.2 billion, placing him in a tie for 12th place on the list with the Newhouses.

As for Trump, Forbes put his net worth last year at $1.7 billion, but it dropped sharply this year as the value of his real estate and airline empire crumbled. In April, the magazine said he was worth about a half a billion dollars.

Forbes says one trend it noticed in compiling this year’s list was the number of wealthy Germans. The magazine identified 38 West German billionaire families--far more per capita than in Japan or the United States.