Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 272 posts

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#11

Post by swampthing »

Danieru wrote: post #6

Do 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…

But in the West, even if you just gave your business away to another person who continued to run it, we would still consider that the same business.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#12

Post by austhrow743 »

swampthing wrote: post #11
Danieru wrote: post #6

Do 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…

But in the West, even if you just gave your business away to another person who continued to run it, we would still consider that the same business.

Sure but you would't then advertise it as having been in the family for a thousand years.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#13

Post by GreeniFi »

Danieru wrote: post #6

Do 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…

Bit random, but your post reminded me of this moment of British comedy: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BUl6PooveJE

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#14

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

austhrow743 wrote: post #12
swampthing wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in the West, even if you just gave your business away to another person who continued to run it, we would still consider that the same business.

Sure but you would't then advertise it as having been in the family for a thousand years.

But you might still say "family run for a thousand years"

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#15

Post by Bayart »

Danieru wrote: post #6

Do 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…

>In the west we might argue that burning a building and rebuilding, would count as a new building.

Interestingly enough, by that notion most churches (at least in towns) in the former Roman empire date back to Antiquity. But we usually only date the date of the main standing structure as the building's birthday.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#16

Post by swampthing »

austhrow743 wrote: post #12
swampthing wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in the West, even if you just gave your business away to another person who continued to run it, we would still consider that the same business.

Sure but you would't then advertise it as having been in the family for a thousand years.

The article is about century+ old businesses in general, of which family-run ones are a subset.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#17

Post by hnaccy »

cyberferret wrote: post #2

Wow - 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?!

You have the numbers mixed up, Kongō Gumi had been founded in 578 AD so its run was over a millennia.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#18

Post by bane »

It's interesting about growing older. I don't know if this is a function of aging or a change in how humanity recons time. When I was younger, a century seemed like forever. Now it's just 1920 and we have film, music, audio, books and so on from that time period readily available.

In many ways 1920 doesn't really seem all that far away to me while 1860, 1870, 1880 (a century from when I was a child) seemed to be forever ago.

When I look at film and photos from 1920 I see modern people, people I could see meeting and having relatively modern conversations while when I look at media from the mid 1800s I see ancestors who I share very little with.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#19

Post by Danieru »

swampthing wrote: post #11
Danieru wrote: post #6

Do 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…

But in the West, even if you just gave your business away to another person who continued to run it, we would still consider that the same business.

Indeed, the business would continue. The issue is that in the west business owners would not see the merit in just giving a business away for the sake of the age ticking up.

In the west the business would get sold and merged. Only in Japan does the adoption make it a family or lineage thing.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#20

Post by Barrin92 »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #14
austhrow743 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but you would't then advertise it as having been in the family for a thousand years.

But you might still say "family run for a thousand years"

more as ad advertisement slogan though. I've never seen someone in the west adopt another adult just to authentically continue a legacy (outside of European monarchies maybe). There is a sense of tradition to these Japanese companies that one doesn't see so often outside of Japan.
Post reply on HN