According to the research company Teikoku Databank, 46,708 Japanese companies had been in business for more than 100 years as of December 2025. Teikoku Databank calls them shinise kigyō, long-established companies.
1,145 Suppliers
On October 18, 1999, Nissan, led by Carlos Ghosn, announced the Nissan Revival Plan. The company said that it would reduce its 1,145 suppliers of parts and materials to 600 or fewer by fiscal 2002. It also said that it held shares in 1,394 companies and would move to sell them, on grounds of cost and benefit, to raise cash.
Nissan presented these cuts as steps to revive the company.
Dividing the Curtain
In the Edo period, a merchant house could reward a servant who had worked for it for many years with noren-wake, dividing the shop curtain. The master gave him a share of capital and customers and had him open his own shop. The new shop was allowed to use the same shop name and sign.
The Vocabulary of Connection
En (縁): the meeting and joining of people, a tie between them. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten also glosses it as enko, a personal connection.
Tōku no shinrui yori chikaku no tanin (遠くの親類より近くの他人): better a stranger nearby than a relative far away. In a time of need, the person to rely on is not the relative who lives far away but the neighbor.
Hadaka no tsukiai (裸のつきあい): naked association. A dictionary gives it as an example of hadaka, naked, in the sense of hiding nothing.
Kongō Gumi
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.
Long-Term, Stable Procurement
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.”
Main Bank
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.
The Vocabulary of Regular Custom
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.
Restoring Renesas
The earthquake of March 11, 2011 damaged the Naka plant of Renesas Electronics, a maker of semiconductors. Up to 2,500 people a day, including staff from automakers and other business partners, came to help restore it. In all, about 80,000 person-days were mobilized.
Partial production restarted on June 1, two weeks earlier than planned.
Trust Beyond the Contract
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.