---
title: "Japan's company presidents are over 60: what it means for sales"
description: "Japan's presidents average 60.8 and half of companies have no successor. Not aging but a decision-chain problem: who decides, by what. Succession is the window."
image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/presidents-average-age-sixty-en.png
---

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

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

[日本語](https://nobusato.jp/ja/blog/presidents-average-age-sixty)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/presidents-average-age-sixty)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh/blog/presidents-average-age-sixty)

[Japan by the Numbers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/japan-by-the-numbers)

# The average company president is over sixty. What that means if you're selling

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

![The average presidentis over sixty.What that means for sales](https://nobusato.jp/hs-fs/hubfs/presidents-average-age-sixty-en.png?width=1200&height=630&name=presidents-average-age-sixty-en.png)

**Series「Five numbers to read before entering Japan」** · Part 3 of 5

Teikoku Databank surveys the average age of Japanese company presidents every year. In 2025 it was 60.8. In 1990 it was 54.0. Thirty-five consecutive years of increase, no exceptions. A quarter of presidents are over 70; more than half are over 60. The annual turnover rate is 3.84%, meaning a president sits for twenty-six years on average.

Another figure from the same source: half of Japanese companies have no designated successor. That share has fallen from 66% in 2017, but a good part of the decline is companies choosing to close rather than find one.

## The usual reading: aging

These numbers usually get filed under the headline "Japan is aging" and left there. For a company trying to sell in Japan, that reading says nothing.

545658606219902000201020152020202554.060.8ageOver 7025%Turnover3.84%/yrNo successor50.1%

**Fig.1**Average age of Japanese company presidents, 54.0 in 1990 to 60.8 in 2025, rising for thirty-five straight years. Intermediate years are approximate values from Teikoku Databank's annual surveys.

## The method's reading: it's a decision-chain problem

In organizational diagnosis I don't ask who has influence. I walk decision chains: for one specific purchase, who was consulted first, whose remark changed minds, who signed. Turn that method on your customers and the president's age stops being demographics and becomes sales intelligence.

A 65-year-old president, thirty years at the same company, no successor. What are his criteria for a purchasing decision? In most cases I've seen, the order is risk, trust, relationship, and only then performance and price. He isn't incapable of understanding new things. He's doing a different calculation: if this supplier fails, can I clean it up at my age? Will this decision become a problem I leave to whoever comes next? If I drop a supplier I've worked with for twenty years, how do I explain it to them?

None of that appears anywhere in your product material. Your material is about features, efficiency and ROI, written for a 40-year-old purchasing manager. The person who decides is reading a different page.

## The action: three decisions

The entry decision this number changes: who the sales material is written for, and when you go.

One: two sets of material. One for the people who will use the product, about features and efficiency. One for the person who decides, answering only three questions: if something goes wrong, who comes and how fast; how long will you be in Japan; how do you coexist with the current supplier rather than replace them. The second is usually one page, and it decides whether anything gets signed.

Two: find the heir or the head clerk. Half of companies have no designated successor; in the other half, the successor is usually already inside. Teikoku's 2025 data shows internal promotion at 36% of new presidents, overtaking family succession at 32% for the first time. That person may now be a senior managing director, or an old hand with no formal title whom everyone listens to. They are the biggest creditor on [the favor ledger](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/the-favor-ledger?hsLang=en), and the next person who will decide. Reaching them now is the cheapest it will ever be.

Three: watch the succession year. With presidents sitting twenty-six years on average, succession is a once-a-generation event. A new president's first year is the only window in which the whole supplier list gets reconsidered, because he needs to show he's different from his predecessor and he doesn't yet have twenty-year ties to the incumbents. On your market map, mark target customers with the president's age and succession status. Over 70 and no successor means a window opening within three years.

## What this has to do with "we'll consider it"

When a Japanese customer says they'll consider it, often it isn't stalling. It means someone on the decision chain hasn't nodded, and that someone is usually this president. However well you get on with the purchasing manager, if it can't get past him, it's "we'll consider it." Knowing that, the waiting time can be used for something else: finding a way to get the second set of material into his hands.

## Check yourself

The top twenty companies on your Japan target list: how old are their presidents? How many have named a successor? If those two columns are empty, your sales team is negotiating with someone they can't see.

Sources

- [帝国データバンク 全国「社長年齢」分析調査（2025年）：平均60.8歳、35年連続上昇、交代率3.84%](https://www.tdb.co.jp/report/economic/20260216-presidentage2025/)
- [帝国データバンク 全国「後継者不在率」動向調査（2025年）：不在率50.1%、新社長は内部昇格36.1%・同族32.3%・M&A 20.6%](https://www.zaikei.co.jp/releases/3194399/)

**In this series**  
Previous：[The country with the most century-old companies: why newcomers can't move customers](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/country-of-century-old-companies?hsLang=en)  
Next：[SMEs are 99% of Japanese companies. Decide who you're selling to first](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/smes-are-99-percent-who-do-you-sell-to?hsLang=en)

---

Shorter notes that don't make it into a full article go on LinkedIn. [Follow me there](https://www.linkedin.com/in/realnobusato/).

## More in this column

- ### [Is LinkedIn Useful in Japan? What the Numbers Say](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/is-linkedin-useful-in-japan?hsLang=en)
  
  LinkedIn reported 3 million members in Japan in 2022, about 4% of a 70 million labor force. Small, but dense in foreign ...
- ### [How Good Is English in Japan, Really?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-english-proficiency?hsLang=en)
  
  Japan ranks 96th on the EF English index, yet a quarter of TOEIC takers score 745+. Neither measures the workplace. ...
- ### [Japan's 3-Year Graduate Turnover, Taken Apart](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japan-graduate-turnover-3-years?hsLang=en)
  
  About 3 in 10 Japanese graduates leave their first employer within three years, at an even pace each year. The real ...

[← All articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en)

## Writing about launching in Japan, in three languages.

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

Nobu Sato

Writing about launching in Japan, in three languages.

[info@nobusato.jp](mailto:info@nobusato.jp) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/realnobusato/) [X](https://x.com/nobusato5888)

© 2026 Nobu Sato. All rights reserved.

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement" : [ {
    "@type" : "ListItem",
    "item" : "https://nobusato.jp/en",
    "name" : "Home",
    "position" : 1
  }, {
    "@type" : "ListItem",
    "item" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog",
    "name" : "Articles",
    "position" : 2
  }, {
    "@type" : "ListItem",
    "item" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/presidents-average-age-sixty",
    "name" : "The average company president is over sixty. What that means if you're selling",
    "position" : 3
  } ]
}
```

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/presidents-average-age-sixty",
  "@type" : "WebPage",
  "author" : {
    "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/#person"
  },
  "inLanguage" : "en",
  "isPartOf" : {
    "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog",
    "@type" : "Blog",
    "name" : "Articles"
  },
  "name" : "The average company president is over sixty. What that means if you're selling",
  "url" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/presidents-average-age-sixty"
}
```

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/#person",
  "@type" : "Person",
  "name" : "Nobu Sato",
  "sameAs" : [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/realnobusato/", "https://x.com/nobusato5888" ],
  "url" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/profile"
}
```

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Nobu Sato",
    "url" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/author/nobu-sato"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2026-10-24T02:55:09.171Z",
  "datePublished" : "2026-10-24T02:58:08.000Z",
  "headline" : "Japan's company presidents are over 60: what it means for sales",
  "image" : [ "https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/presidents-average-age-sixty-en.png" ],
  "mainEntityOfPage" : {
    "@id" : "https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/presidents-average-age-sixty",
    "@type" : "WebPage"
  },
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "url" : "https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/nobusatojp-1.jpg"
    },
    "name" : "nobusato.jp"
  }
}
```