Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
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Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#2Wow - that tea house has been operating for 900 years? I thought the previous record was a Japanese temple building company that was around for 400+ years before having to close during the global financial crisis a decade ago?!
There is that old adage in multi generational businesses that goes - "The first generation kicks off the business, the second generation builds upon what the first generation did, and the third generation squanders everything the first two generations did". In my 40+ years of business consulting I have actually seen this happen multiple times.
There must be something different about the Japanese cultural and philosophical outlook of building a business and handing it over to the next generation to carry on.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#3Wow - that tea house has been operating for 900 years? I thought the previous record was a Japanese temple building company that was around for 400+ years before having to close during the global financial crisis a decade ago?! There is that old adage in multi generational businesses that goes - "The first generation kicks off the business, the second generation builds upon what the first generation did, and the thir…
Knowing what your place is in an honorific culture might help.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#4Wow - that tea house has been operating for 900 years? I thought the previous record was a Japanese temple building company that was around for 400+ years before having to close during the global financial crisis a decade ago?! There is that old adage in multi generational businesses that goes - "The first generation kicks off the business, the second generation builds upon what the first generation did, and the thir…
This probably helps: "Several companies have even benefited from the widely-accepted Japanese practice of adopting adult male workers into the family bloodline to ensure an unbroken succession for the business"
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#5Wow - that tea house has been operating for 900 years? I thought the previous record was a Japanese temple building company that was around for 400+ years before having to close during the global financial crisis a decade ago?! There is that old adage in multi generational businesses that goes - "The first generation kicks off the business, the second generation builds upon what the first generation did, and the thir…
This probably helps: "Several companies have even benefited from the widely-accepted Japanese practice of adopting adult male workers into the family bloodline to ensure an unbroken succession for the business"
This technique has saved monarchies (and "lesser" families) around the world for millennia.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#6Do you remember Ship of Theseus? The thought experiment about if a ship which has been fully rebuilt bit by bit is it still the same thing?
Japan appears consistent in saying, yes, rebuilding or swapping out components keeps the identity. You see this attitude in "Japan's oldest temple, burned to the ground and rebuilt every 20 years". In the west we might argue that burning a building and rebuilding, would count as a new building.
Similar in Japan's family business the lineage can be preserved by adopting a adult man capable of continuing the business. It needs not be common, but it does serve to ensure family businesses will not end due to a failed marriage or lack of kids. In the west this would just come across as giving your business away to another person, yet in Japan it is considered a valid continuation of the family.
I do not think this is the single biggest reason Japan has such old businesses, but I think it is a key tool which has preserved many.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#7Wow - that tea house has been operating for 900 years? I thought the previous record was a Japanese temple building company that was around for 400+ years before having to close during the global financial crisis a decade ago?! There is that old adage in multi generational businesses that goes - "The first generation kicks off the business, the second generation builds upon what the first generation did, and the thir…
> I thought the previous record was a Japanese temple building company that was around for 400+ years before having to close during the global financial crisis a decade ago?!
There are banks in Europe older than 400 years as well.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#8Beretta the Italian Gun manufacturer is almost 500 years old.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#9Only a century old? Easy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#10Fun fact: The oldest continuous company in Japan (and the world), Kongo Gumi, was founded by a Korean immigrant.