The temple builder Kongō Gumi gives 578 as its founding year. Shitennō-ji in Osaka was founded in 593. From then until the Edo period, Kongō Gumi worked for the temple as its own miya daiku, temple carpenters.
In a ranking of Japan’s oldest companies, not counting religious bodies, Kongō Gumi comes first. Since 2006, a new company in the Takamatsu Construction Group has carried on its business, and the Kongō family no longer runs it.
The business principles of the Sumitomo group, Eigyō no yōshi, have two articles. The first says that Sumitomo’s business shall value trust, make certainty its rule, and so aim for lasting strength and prosperity.
The second allows the business to grow or shrink as the times change. But it shall never chase furi, floating profit, or act rashly.
In 1717, Shimomura Hikoemon opened the kimono shop Daimonjiya in Fushimi, Kyoto. It grew into the department store Daimaru. A business magazine credits him with making sengi kōri the principle of his business: righteousness first, profit after.
The phrase goes back to the Chinese philosopher Xunzi. Those who put righteousness before profit are honored. Those who put profit before righteousness are despised.
In 2024, Toyota presented its purchasing policy at an event of the Japan Auto Parts Industries Association. The aim is to buy the best goods in the world, at the lowest cost, at the right time, and chōki anteiteki ni, in a long-term and stable way. One section is titled “Mutual prosperity based on mutual trust.”
Japanese companies often concentrate their borrowing, their deposits and their transfers at one bank, the mein banku, main bank. A business guide describes a tacit understanding. When the borrower falls into difficulty, the main bank watches over it warmly.
The guide also notes a limit. This support may end when the trouble comes from the borrower’s own poor management.
In 1673, Mitsui Takatoshi, aged 52, opened the kimono shop Echigoya in Honchō, Edo. Shops at the time sold on credit to their customers and collected payment a few times a year. Echigoya sold for cash.
Its slogan was genkin kakene nashi, cash and no markup. One company history links the signboard to the shop’s move to Surugachō in 1683.
Tokuisaki (得意先): a customer who always buys from one, or a partner one trades with as a matter of course. A dictionary gives torihikisaki, trading partner, as its synonym.
Kongo tomo yoroshiku onegai itashimasu (今後ともよろしくお願いいたします): we ask for your continued favor from now on. A business magazine explains that the phrase expresses a relationship that will continue over a long span.
Japan’s Economic White Paper of 1992 described the ties between parent companies and their parts suppliers. These relationships, it said, tend to be long-term and continuous, unlike ordinary spot market trading. Out of cooperation, a relationship of trust is thought to emerge that does not rest on an explicit contract. Shareholdings and the dispatch of directors reinforce the ties.
The paper called the keiretsu system very efficient for the buyers and sellers involved. It also noted its costs, such as the burden on subcontractors.
To visit an ochaya, a traditional teahouse in Kyoto, a guest needs an introduction from someone the house knows. The custom is called ichigen-san okotowari, no first-time guests. Some teahouses are also homes where young maiko live.
Bills were traditionally settled on credit, twice a year, around Obon and New Year. A guide to Kyoto describes this as credit sales between people who know each other, a system that survives in the teahouses today.
Akinai wa ushi no yodare (商いは牛の涎): business is like a cow’s drool. Success in business comes from persistence and steadiness, not from quick profit.