Henokiens
“The Henokiens is an association of companies who have been continuously operating and remain family-owned for 200 years or more, and whose descendants still operate at management level. It derives its name from the biblical patriarch Enoch (Hénoch in French), who lived for 365 years before he was taken by God instead of dying.”
Over 1300 Years Oldest Hotel Runs by 52 Generations of Same Family in Japan!
“The world’s oldest hotel Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan is located in Kyoto, Japan. It was established in 705 AD (the 2nd year of the Keiun era) when Fujiwara Mahito founded the inn.”
“From its inception, the Keiunkan onsen has been passed down within the original family through the centuries. The 52 different generations of the same family have cared for and operated the inn, growing the space and modernizing it slowly with each passing epoch.”
“Keiunkan currently holds the Guinness World Record for oldest hotel and is now aiming for another, world’s most productive hot spring, thanks to their new bath that pumps over a thousand liters of naturally heated water per minute.”
(via Over 1300 Years Oldest Hotel Runs by 52 Generations of Same Family in Japan! | Future Entech)
The Oldest Paper Company in Japan
“Genda Shigyo or "Genda Paper Company" is said to have been founded in the year 771, in the latter days of the Nara Period (710-794). When the capital of Japan was moved to Kyoto in 794, marking the beginning of the Heian Period, Genda Shigyo went as well, and it can now be found in the blocks separating Nijo Castle from Kyoto Imperial Palace.”
“The company historically made mizuhiki, decorative, multicolored cords made of twisted paper. Used almost like ribbons...The color, number and arrangement of the cords convey different meanings. Red and white is probably the most common combination for auspicious events, though you'll also find envelopes with gold- or copper-colored cords. On the other hand, black and white, yellow and white, blue and white, silver or completely black cords will be used for inauspicious events, particularly funerals...After World War II, the company did diversify, if ever so slightly. It now makes congratulatory gifts using mizuhiki as well as the mizuhiki themselves.”
(via The Oldest Paper Company in Japan | All About Japan)
Sudo Honke
“Established in 1141 AD, Sudo Honke is presently the oldest kura still actively brewing in all of Japan (based on the oldest written records of brewing). The current president is the 55th generation president of Sudo Honke. The brewing philosophy of Sudo Honke is simple, clean, and natural. Sake, he says, is made from rice. Good rice comes from good soil. Good soil comes from fresh and high-quality water. Such water comes from protecting our trees. Protecting the natural environment makes excellent sake.”
(via Sudo Honke | eSake)
Gekkeikan
“Gekkeikan Sake Company, Ltd. (Gekkeikan Kabushikigaisha) is a Japanese manufacturer of sake and plum wine based in Fushimi, Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1637 by Jiemon Ōkura, in Fushimi, it is one of the world's oldest companies, and is a member of the Henokiens group. The name of the company literally means "laurel wreath".
Ichimojiya Wasuke
“Ichimonjiya Wasuke is a traditional confectionery company located in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. It was established in the year 1000 and is operated by 24th generation of the same family. The recent building is about 300 years old and contains many benches and stools around small tables. Local people call the shop "Ichiwa".
“The Company produces and sells wagashi, traditional Japanese confections often served with tea, namely:aburi-mochi - roasted rice cake sweet miso sauce sekihan - rice with red beans green tea, etc...There is another old confectionery called Kazariya (Kasuragi) founded in 1656, but about 200 years ago its owner changed.”
Kikkoman
“Kikkoman Corporation (Kikkōman Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese food manufacturer. Its main products and services include soy sauce, food seasoning and flavoring, mirin, shōchū, and sake, juice and other beverages, pharmaceuticals, and restaurant management services.”
“Kikkoman has production plants and offices in Japan, the U.S., the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Canada. Kikkoman is the most popular brand of soy sauce in Japan and the United States. The village of Sappemeer in Groningen, the Netherlands, is the European headquarters of the company.”
“Founded in 1917, it is based in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is a combination of 8 family-owned businesses founded as early as 1603 by the Mogi and Takanashi families.”
Keio University
“Keio University (Keiō Gijuku Daigaku), abbreviated as Keio or Keidai, is a private university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It is known as the oldest institute of modern higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo (now Tokyo). It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa.”
Kiuchi Brewery
“Kiuchi Brewery is a brewery in Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It was established in 1823 by village headman Kiuchi Gihei as a sake and shochu producer.Craft beer production began in 1996 after a change in Japanese law governing micro brewing.”
Kirin Brewery Company Yokohama Factory
“As beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in Japan there are plenty of interesting beers and beer history to discover. Yokohama Factory is one of nine factories of the Kirin Brewery Company, Limited (Chitose, Sendai, Toride, Yokohama, Nagoya, Shiga, Kobe, Okayama, and Fukuoka). Yokohama factory offers free tours that last around 80 minutes...If you are curious about Japanese beer and how it is manufactured, taking a tour at Kirin Beer Village in Yokohama is a very good experience and a lot of fun...Kirin Beer Village in Yokohama is a 7-minute walk from Nama-mugi Station on the Keikyu line.”
(via Kirin Brewery Company Yokohama Factory | Yokohama Official Visitors’ Guide)
Keeping It in the Family
“The oldest running hotel in operation is not in Paris or London or Rome. It is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, in Yamanashi, Japan: a hot-spring hotel called Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan, which has existed since the year 705...Japan is home to the world’s oldest lots of things. Sudo Honke, the world’s oldest sake brewer, has been around since 1141.
Ostensibly, it’s not surprising that an old country with an old economy would be home to so many old businesses. Many of the oldest companies are local and family-owned, such as sake brewers and inns (or ryokan) that were established for traders in the eighth century along the route from Tokyo to Kyoto. Even before it became the first non-Western, non-Christian country to industrialize in the 1870s, Japan boasted a well-developed agricultural economy “with rather sophisticated urban populations”...This semi-elite urban class provided a strong consumer base.”
“But that only explains how the companies were established early on, not necessarily how they have managed to last. One factor was the right of primogeniture...Because the eldest son inherited all of a patriarch’s wealth, companies in Japan could be passed on entirely to a single member of the family.
Even though primogeniture faded with the 20th century, owners still often pass their companies on to a single heir—although keeping business in the family is often aided and abetted by adult adoption, in which the company head legally adopts the right person to run his firm and then passes it on. (These adult adoptions are sometimes facilitated by a marriage between the heir presumptive and the owner’s daughter)... Firms run by adopted heirs, research shows, outperform those run by “blood” heirs—and both adopted and blood heirs outperform non family firms.”
“The infusion of literal new blood into old family businesses ensures that the nation’s ancient firms can keep evolving. The proof is in the pudding: Most of Japan’s oldest companies are family-owned...Perhaps most famously there is Nintendo, which started out as a playing-card maker in the 1800s and managed to metamorphosize into an iconic consumer electronics company while remaining a continuously owned family concern.
“Family-owned enterprises are always going to have a lot more persistence...They continue in the same sense that the name continues.”
(via World’s oldest companies: Why are so many of them in Japan? | The Slate)
Japan's Oldest Businesses Have Survived for More Than 1,000 Years
“Japan[, t]he country is currently home to more than 50,000 businesses that are over 100 years old. Of those, 3,886 have been around for more than 200 years. As a point of comparison, only one in every four U.S. companies founded in 1994 was still operating in 2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But in the past decade, some of Japan’s oldest businesses have finally shut their doors. Last month, the roughly 465-year-old seafood seller Minoya Kichibee filed for bankruptcy...The first question to ask about a company...is why it stuck around so long in the first place. For one thing, these companies tend to be clustered in industries that never really go out of style.”
“There’s a pattern...The oldest family businesses often are involved in basic human activities: drink, shipping, construction, food, guns.”
The other reason these companies proliferate in Japan is because of how the country's family-run businesses have been passed down through generations. Japanese business owners typically bequeathed entire companies to their eldest sons...But what fostered corporate longevity was that owners were permitted some leeway if they didn’t trust their offspring to take the helm: They could adopt a son, who would often marry into the family and go on to run the business.
In Japan, a 2011 study found, businesses run by adopted heirs consistently outperformed those run by blood heirs...“You can’t choose your sons, but you can choose your sons-in-law,” goes one Japanese saying.”
“So if they made it 500 or even 1,500 years, why would any of these companies collapse now? The most compelling explanation has to do with how the Japanese government has changed the way it treats struggling companies...Historically...Japanese banks helped out even the most hopeless businesses without a second thought. “Between 1955 and 1990, only something like 72 Japanese companies went bankrupt. The reason was that the banks were supposed to bail them out.”
Then, in 2000, Japan passed its first Chapter-11-like bankruptcy law, and four years later, rewrote 1922 laws concerning corporate liquidation...“Non-performing companies no longer receive help from lenders unless they have a solid plan for change”...These archaic companies—Minoya Kichibee sold salted squid guts using a 350-year-old recipe—used to benefit from the dependability of banks, even if their products weren’t optimized for the modern world.”
“Even if bankruptcy legislation is the most logical theory of why these companies finally folded, it’s not the only plausible one. It’s also worth noting that Japan’s cultural norms have eroded quite a bit in recent decades, which turns out to be a problem for a company selling traditionally-prepared squid guts. “Japanese Millennials are not that interested in really traditional Japanese culture as compared to their grandparents or parents...As the old population dies off, there is just not enough demand that is able to sustain such firms.”
Japan has also started to take a different stance toward marriage, adoption, and inheritance. “It's also likely become harder to recruit young men to enter a small firm under the presumption that they will marry the president's daughter.”
(via Japan's Oldest Businesses Have Survived for More Than 1,000 Years | The Atlantic)
