{"id":87,"date":"2015-12-31T03:44:40","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T03:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/?p=87"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:44:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:44:58","slug":"there-is-something-about-japanese-family-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/2015\/12\/31\/there-is-something-about-japanese-family-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"There Is Something About Japanese Family Firms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone interested in family business successions cannot ignore studying Japanese companies. As per a recent study by a South Korean bank, there are 5,586 companies worldwide that have existed for more than 200 years, of which 3,146 are Japanese. As per estimates there are more\u00a0than 50,000 Japanese companies that have lasted over 100 years and seven have been around for as much as 1,000 years.<\/p>\n<p>Japan contains eight of the world\u2019s ten longest-running businesses, including the world\u2019s oldest hotels, (Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan, 705) and (Hoshi Ryokan, 718). The country also houses the world\u2019s oldest sake brewer (Sudo Honke, 1141), religious goods company (Tanaka Iga, 885), flower decoration company (Ikenobo, 15<sup>th<\/sup> century), confectionary (Ichimojiya Wasuke, 1000), and, until recently, construction company (Kongo Gumi, 578) \u2014 all of which have been verified by the Guinness Book of World Records. The secret behind the success of Japanese firms is twofold.<\/p>\n<p><b>Adult adoption<\/b>: For centuries, Japanese business owners have engaged in the practice through which, when there is no son to inherit a business, or when the son is not good enough, an heir is legally adopted. Through a technique called \u201cMukoy\u014dshi,\u201d a business owner with no male heirs to his company can also legally adopt his daughter\u2019s husband as a \u2018second-birth son\u2019. Even in the rare case that a thoroughly vetted male adoptee fails in his leadership role, he can be disinherited, and another heir can be adopted to take his place. This practice makes Japanese family firms more professionally managed than their peers anywhere else.<\/p>\n<p><b>Isolation<\/b>: Another argument for the longevity of Japanese firms is the country\u2019s isolationism, specifically in between 1641 to 1853. During this period, Japan\u2019s economy thrived, and the country enjoyed one of the longest stretches of peace in any nation\u2019s history. This assisted in preserving the legacy of local businesses.<\/p>\n<p><i>Source: http:\/\/www.ejinsight.com\/20151221-how-to-create-a-family-business-that-lasts-a-thousand-years\/<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone interested in family business successions cannot ignore studying Japanese companies. As per a recent study by a South Korean bank, there are 5,586 companies worldwide that have existed for more than 200 years, of which 3,146 are Japanese. As per estimates there are more\u00a0than 50,000 Japanese companies that have lasted over 100 years and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>There Is Something About Japanese Family Firms - Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/2015\/12\/31\/there-is-something-about-japanese-family-firms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There Is Something About Japanese Family Firms - Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anyone interested in family business successions cannot ignore studying Japanese companies. As per a recent study by a South Korean bank, there are 5,586 companies worldwide that have existed for more than 200 years, of which 3,146 are Japanese. 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