Japan has 21,066 firms founded more than a century ago and they reflect the merits of the nation's management style, a private credit research agency said Wednesday.
There were eight firms founded more than 1,000 years ago, with 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, operating classes of ikebana. It was founded in 587.
It said companies that managed to survive 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 with a record of when they were founded 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 9,960 firms.