Japan has 21,066 companies founded more than a century ago. These companies reflect the merits of Japan’s management style, a private credit research agency recently said in Tokyo. There were eight firms in Japan which were founded more then 1,000 years ago.

Osaka-based Construction Company Kongo Gumi topping the list with 1,431 years of history, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said based on its survey. The second-oldest company is Kyoto-based Ikenobo Kadokai which operates classes for ikebana arrangement.

It was founded in 587. It said companies that managed to survey all these years “reflect good things about the Japanese style of management, such as being realistic and employee-oriented.” The survey was conducted in May among 1,975,620 firms in Japan with a record of when they were founded.

Accordingly they were registered in the agency’s database. Firms, aged over a century made up 1 percent of the surveyed firms, with 82 percent of them founded in the Meiji Era (1868-1912) and most of them in the Kinki region, with 4,618. By business category, wholesalers or retailers held the most such businesses, with 9,960firms.

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