Toyota Motor Corp. and seven other Japanese firms have made it into a 2018 global brand ranking while Apple Inc., based in the United States, maintained its top spot for the sixth straight year.
The report is the first since 2007 to include eight Japanese brands in the top 100 list, which was released recently by U.S. consultancy firm Interbrand.
Toyota claimed the seventh position, unchanged from the preceding year, while Honda Motor Co. held its spot in 20th place. Nissan Motor Co. edged down one slot to 40th. Canon Inc. dropped to the 55th position from 52nd. Sony Corp. moved up to 59th from the 61st spot and Panasonic Corp. came in at 76th, down from 75th last year.
Nintendo Co. made a comeback into the ranking for the first time since 2014, in the 99th place, underpinned by robust sales of its Switch game console. New to the list and in 100th place was Subaru Corp., which has strengthened its presence in North America.
Apple was followed by two U.S. companies — Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
Three South Korean firms and one from China appeared in the list.
Facebook Inc. ranked ninth, down one slot. The U.S. company is struggling with security issues after admitting in April that data for up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked on the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign of Donald Trump.
The list is produced by calculating the cumulative worth of brand attributes — such as the financial performance of products and services and the role of the brand in influencing consumer choices — as a monetary value equivalent, according to Interbrand.