The Longevity of the Japanese Big Businesses

• Main Author: Takashi SHIMIZU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Global Business Research Center 2002-10-01
• Series: Annals of Business Administrative Science
• Subjects: longevity; japanese big businesses; corporate systems
• Online Access: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/abas/1/3/1_39/_pdf/-char/en

Though survival is important to firms, especially to the Japanese big businesses, there are few empirical studies on their longevity. This paper conducts the statistical analysis on the longevity of the Japanese big businesses using data on 1,273 listed firms in the first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange. The result indicates that the longevity of the Japanese big businesses may go beyond a century on average, and the longevity had increased gradually in the post-WWII period. These findings suggest that the Japanese big businesses are stable. This paper also explores the relationship between this stability and the Japanese corporate systems.