Photo/Illutration Shusuke Okamoto, president of Okabun Orimono Co., answers questions from Chinese business executives in Kyoto on July 6. (Fuka Takei)

KYOTO--The president of Okabun Orimono Co., a long-established textile manufacturer, was peppered with questions this summer from Chinese business executives.

“What is the secret of your company lasting for 333 years?” one asked Shusuke Okamoto. 

Another wanted to know what Okamoto, the 14th-generation president, values most in running his business, the manufacturing of Nishijin-ori brocade, a specialty of Kyoto.

A third was curious about how the company selects its president’s successor.

The 35 Chinese executives, many of whom run textile- and apparel-related businesses, visited Okabun Orimono on a special tour. It was organized, at the request of a Chinese travel agency, by the operator of an online shopping mall that markets to China.

Okamoto, 59, showed the visitors the processes for making Nishijin-ori and explained about his company’s operations. The question-and-answer session lasted for about an hour.

It was the second time Okamoto had provided a tour for Chinese executives after the one in May. Last time, he ran out of time for questions after focusing on explanations.

“I was surprised because I had not expected so many questions,” Okamoto said.

The enthusiasm of Okamoto’s guests represents a growing interest among Chinese businesses in time-honored companies in Kyoto.

The ancient capital is known for many companies founded over 100 years ago. Some even date back several hundred years.

Yusaku Hayashi, who organizes tours for business people to learn from those companies, said relatively young Chinese firms are looking for models to keep their businesses going long term.

According to Hayashi, many private-sector companies in China were born after the country embarked on its reform and open-door policy in 1978, and their founders are now being replaced by their successors.

But there are few traditional companies that can serve as role models for them to follow, partly because of confusion caused by the Cultural Revolution.

Hayashi, 57, said the tours to established businesses in Kyoto organized by his company have received a growing number of reservations from Chinese customers.

Reservations started coming in around March after a hiatus due to the pandemic, and so far 21 tours have been booked by Chinese groups, some as far ahead as October.

By comparison, about 20 tours were organized in and around 2019, half of them for foreign groups.

The tours cost between 150,000 yen ($1,025) and 3 million yen, and dozens of participants attend each tour.

According to a survey conducted in 2022 by research company Teikoku Databank Ltd., companies operating for 100 years or more accounted for 5.15 percent of businesses in Kyoto Prefecture, the largest figure among the nation’s 47 prefectures.

Teikoku Databank said there are many old-line companies in the prefecture because the city of Kyoto was the nation’s capital and suffered little damage during World War II.

Hayashi said Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyoto-based electronics manufacturer Kyocera Corp., may be behind the popularity of Kyoto among Chinese business people.

Inamori’s books, translated into Chinese, are widely read in the country.

Seiwa-juku, a group where business people learn Inamori’s management philosophy, was disbanded in Japan, but it continues in China with more than 10,000 members today.

Inamori died in August last year, but Hayashi said he still has a strong impact in China.

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