---
title: "Japan's century-old firms: why customers won't switch"
description: "Half the world's century-old companies are in Japan. Not tradition but access control: channels and customer ties sit with the old houses. Borrow, don't fight."
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-11/country-of-century-old-companies-cover-en-m.png
---

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)

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Japan by the Numbers

In this article

1. [The culture story](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s1)
2. [Who controls access](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s2)
3. [Don't attack them head on](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s3)
4. [Using it on the map](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s4)
5. [A question about your market's channels](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s5)

1. [Home](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en)
2. [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en)
3. [Japan by the Numbers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/japan-by-the-numbers)

# The country with the most century-old companies: why newcomers can't move customers

Borrowing their channels beats fighting them

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)5 min read

Contents5

1. [The culture story](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s1)
2. [Who controls access](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s2)
3. [Don't attack them head on](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s3)
4. [Using it on the map](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s4)
5. [A question about your market's channels](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies#s5)

**Series「Five numbers to read before entering Japan」** · Part 2 of 5

Half the world's century-old companies are in Japan. In 2022 Nikkei BP counted 74,037 companies worldwide founded more than a hundred years ago, and 37,085 of them, or 50.1%, were Japanese. Second was the US with 21,822. Teikoku Databank's end-2025 update puts Japanese companies with over a century of history at 46,708, or 3.11% of all firms. 1,836 are over two hundred years old, and 11 are over a thousand.

Three out of every hundred Japanese companies are older than your grandfather. If you are entering this market, that matters for a reason that has little to do with tradition.

## The culture story

The number usually gets told as a story about culture. Japanese value continuity, craftsmanship, the family business. None of that is false. None of it tells a company entering the market what to do, either.

So ask a different question. What did these forty-odd thousand companies live on? Teikoku's industry breakdown gives a clue. Manufacturing is 24%, retail 22% and wholesale 21%, nearly 70% between them. Look at wholesale. A wholesaler that has lasted a century has also kept its suppliers and its customers for a century.

In Nikkei BP Consulting’s 2022 count, the US share is 29.5%. Every other country put together comes to 15,130 companies, or 20.4%.

Half the world’s century-old companies are Japanese. Borrowing their channels beats fighting them

74,037 companies founded over 100 years ago, by country (Nikkei BP Consulting, 2022), and the ways in this article lays out

- Japan37,085

  50.1%
- US21,822

  29.5%
- All other countries15,130

  20.4%

**Ways in**　where century-old companies hold a third of the channels

1. ×Take customers head-onTarget “companies buying from X” with a better product at a lower price. The slowest, most expensive route
2. 01Borrow their channelsOld houses lack new product, not customers. Get into their catalog and let forty-year relationships open doors
3. 02Help with successionHalf of Japanese companies have no successor. A window for acquisition or deep partnership
4. 03Help them digitizeTheir systems stopped twenty years ago. Their customer relationships can’t be bought

Old houses don’t show up in the competitor column. Give them their own column on the market map.

Figure 1. Of 74,037 companies worldwide founded over a century ago, 37,085, or 50.1%, are Japanese, and Japan has 46,708 companies over 100 years old, 3.11% of all firms. Where these old houses hold the channels, borrowing those channels or meeting their succession and digital needs gets you in faster than taking customers head-on.

## Who controls access

When I draw a market map, a company makes the list for one of three reasons: talent overlap, business threat, or access control. The first two are obvious. The third gets missed. Some companies don't compete with your product at all, yet they hold what you have to pass through to reach the market. Channels, customer relationships, seats on trade associations, a voice in how standards get set.

Japan's century-old companies are access control in concentrated form. A wholesaler that has been operating for a hundred years holds a customer list that is, in effect, the industry's customer list. A components maker of the same age sits in the trade association that shapes the standards. A newcomer shows up with a better product and finds the customer isn't comparing products at all. The customer is thinking, I've worked with my current supplier for forty years. What do you have?

This is the supply side of the time-and-trust point in [the previous post](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-inward-fdi-is-low?hsLang=en). Customers are slow because the person across the table is a supplier who has already shown they will stay.

## Don't attack them head on

What this number should change is how you define the target customer. The first version of most foreign entry plans targets "the companies currently buying from X" and goes after them with a better product at a lower price. In a market where century-old companies hold a third of the channels, that is the slowest and most expensive route in.

There are other ways in. You can borrow their channels. Old houses usually have plenty of customers and too little new product. Get your product into their catalog and let their forty-year relationships open the doors. [Why distributors don't sell your product](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-your-distributor-isnt-selling?hsLang=en) is about making that actually happen. You can help with succession. Another Teikoku figure: half of Japanese companies have no successor. The next generation of an old house often doesn't want it, and that opens a window for an acquisition or a deep partnership. Buying an old company with its licenses, customers and channels is far faster than building from zero. Or you can help them digitize. A hundred-year-old wholesaler's systems often stopped changing twenty years ago, while its customer relationships can't be bought at any price.

## Using it on the map

When you draw the market map, add a column of its own. Which companies in this industry are over fifty years old, and what does each one hold? Most won't show up under "competitors," but they decide whether your product reaches customers. Of the three reasons for putting a company on the map in [Picking the wrong competitors](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/picking-the-wrong-competitors?hsLang=en), the third one exists for them.

## A question about your market's channels

In the industry you're entering, how many of the top ten channels are century-old companies? Are they on your market map, or sitting just outside your competitor list?

Sources

- [帝国データバンク 全国「老舗企業」分析調査（2025年）：業歴100年超 46,708社、老舗出現率3.11%](https://www.tdb.co.jp/report/economic/20260327_shinise2025/)
- [日経BPコンサルティング 周年事業ラボ「世界の長寿企業ランキング」（2022年）：創業100年以上 74,037社のうち日本 37,085社（50.1%）](https://consult.nikkeibp.co.jp/shunenjigyo-labo/survey_data/I1-06/)

**In this series**  
Previous：[A good market that is hard to enter: how low Japan's inward FDI is](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-inward-fdi-is-low?hsLang=en)  
Next：[The average company president is over sixty. What that means if you're selling](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/presidents-average-age-sixty?hsLang=en)

Related: [BYD built a car only for Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/byd-built-a-car-only-for-japan?hsLang=en)

Author

[Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)

Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. I write about building organizations, sales teams and technology organizations in Japan, in English, Japanese and Chinese.

[Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en)

## Read next

1. 01[Eighty percent of Japanese companies use the cloud. For what?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/eighty-percent-use-cloud-what-for?hsLang=en)5 min
   
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2. 02[A good market that is hard to enter: how low Japan's inward FDI is](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-inward-fdi-is-low?hsLang=en)5 min
   
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3. 03[Japan's Convenience Store Count Has Barely Moved Since 2019](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-convenience-store-count-plateau?hsLang=en)7 min
   
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