At least 37,550 enterprises in Japan passed the century mark in being in business in March, far more than in any other nation.

An expert noted the nation has the most centenarian corporations likely due to Japanese entrepreneurs’ eagerness to work with regional communities and pass down businesses to their descendants, in lieu of only seeking profits.

The United States came in second with 19,497 firms in the category, according to data compiled in 2019 by Teikoku Databank Ltd. and Bureau van Dijk. Sweden ranked third at 13,997.

Japan’s confirmed oldest corporation, Kongogumi Co., is a construction firm in Osaka said to date to 578.

Its representatives stated the firm’s founder is one of the craftspeople invited by Prince Shotoku from the Baekje Kingdom on the Korean Peninsula.

Toraya Confectionery Co., which is based in Tokyo and is famed for its “yokan” traditional jelly, also boasts a long history; it was founded during the Muromachi Period (1336-1573).

Records show that Toraya Confectionery provided sweets under the 1586-1611 reign of Emperor Goyozei, while candy catalogs, wooden molds for confectionery making and other historical items remain at the corporation.

FAMILY BUSINESSES THE REASON

What factors helped Japanese enterprises survive for so long?

An official at Teikoku Databank’s information analysis department cited the fact that family-owned firms accounted for 51 percent of all the companies listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange’s former First Section.

The official said such a trait, while typical of Japanese enterprises, is rarely found outside the country.

The number of “businesses listed on the First Section and lasting 100 years or longer in Japan reached 589--a huge number reported nowhere else in the world,” the official said. 

Matsui Kensetsu KK in Tokyo is Japan’s oldest listed company, founded in 1586. Next is Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., founded in 1590, followed by Watahan & Co., which dates to 1598, then Yomeishu Seizo Co., which started in 1602, according to Teikoku Databank’s accounts.

Matsui Kensetsu opened in the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600) only four years following the Honnoji incident, where renowned warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was killed by a retainer.

Maeda Toshinaga (1562-1614), the second lord of the Kaga domain, commissioned its first head, Matsui Kakuemon, to build Ecchu Moriyama Castle in what is now Toyama Prefecture, leading to the formation of the company.

Successive heads of the self-owned business assumed the names Kakuemon and Kakuhei, and the current chair is Kakuhei XVI.

Matsui Kensetsu has worked on the construction, maintenance and repair of temples, shrines, castles and other historic structures on more than 2,000 occasions since the Meiji Era (1868-1912).

Matsui Kensetsu reconstructed the main hall of the Tsukiji Hongwanji temple in Tokyo, which has been designated by the central government as an important cultural property; the donjon of Odawara Castle in Kanagawa Prefecture; Kanazawa Castle’s Ishikawa Gate; Kumamoto Castle’s Inui turret; and a palace in the core zone of Nagoya Castle, among others.

“We deem handing down our traditional techniques, nurtured since our founding, as part of our social mission,” said Yukio Matsuda, chief of the general affairs department of Matsui Kensetsu. “We will continue going forward with confidence and pride to make sure Matsui will keep on living up to its name as a temple and shrine contractor.”

SECRETS BEHIND LONGEVITY

Teikoku Databank said long-established enterprises’ tactics unique to Japan is known as a “growth ring” model.

“Established family-run businesses work harder to preserve the clans’ enterprises and traditions for future generations and posterity, rather than focusing on only trying to maximize their profits,” said Yoshinori Isagai, a professor of business management studies at Keio University’s Faculty of Policy Management. 

Such a mindset heavily affects the ways successors are selected. Presidents are often chosen from the founding families’ members, while excellent staffers at times marry the previous heads’ daughters so they can take over. More recently, the wives of presidents’ sons take leadership.

Depending on the trend of the times, various methods have been adopted to select exceptional heads in many cases.

Isagai pointed to long-lasting family companies that frequently opt to form reciprocal relationships with nearby communities so they can flourish with local towns by creating regional brands.

“‘Shumai’ steamed dumpling maker Kiyoken Co., which opened in 1908 on the grounds of the original Yokohama Station (present-day Sakuragicho Station), has greatly contributed to Yokohama city,” said Isagai. “It is a typical established firm thriving with its community.”

LIST OF OLDEST JAPANESE FIRMS

All data is from Teikoku Databank and places in parentheses show the locations of the companies' headquarters.

Non-listed firms:

Company name; Foundation year; Business type

1 Kongogumi (Osaka); 578; Construction

2 Keiunkan (Yamanashi Prefecture); 705; Ryokan

3 Koman (Hyogo Prefecture); 717; Ryokan

4 Zengoro (Ishikawa Prefecture); 718; Ryokan

5 Tanaka Iga (Kyoto); 885; Production of items for use in Buddhist rituals

Listed firms:

Company name; Foundation year; Business type

1 Matsui Kensetsu (Tokyo); 1586; Construction

2 Sumitomo Metal Mining (Tokyo); 1590; Mining

3 Watahan & Co. (Tokyo); 1598; Retailing, construction

4 Yomeishu Seizo (Tokyo); 1602; Medicinal alcoholic drink production

5 Ozu (Tokyo); 1653; Textile wholesaler