Why Japan Has the World's Oldest Companies (EST. 578!)

Japan has more of the world's oldest companies than any other country, and Kongo Gumi (金剛組), the Osaka temple carpenters founded by tradition in 578, is often called the oldest of them all. Follow one house through fires, sieges, a typhoon and a boss it fired, until debt ended 1,428 years of family control in 2006: the old family company went bankrupt owing about ¥4 billion, and the business lives on inside the Takamatsu group. ▶ Season 1, Shigoto: Japan at Work (watch in order):    • Плейлист   ✂️ Cut from the episode • Why become a company at all? The 40th head said the house incorporated in 1955 because contracts over ¥5 million had to go to a company (Sone 2013). ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Your Pagoda Blew Down. Again. 1:09 A Company Older Than Its Temple 2:12 Everyone Burned It 3:35 The Family Fires Its Boss 4:44 Saved by a Typhoon 6:41 Two Documents 8:11 So Why Japan? 9:18 The Promise That Outlived the Money 10:08 No Nails in the Frame 🏯 The relay in this video, one generation at a time 1. 578 (by tradition) · 金剛重光 Kongō Shigemitsu, founder and generation 1. The family's own scroll says the carpenters came "from a foreign land" 2. 593 · Japan's official chronicle, the Nihon Shoki (日本書紀), dates the start of Shitennō-ji (四天王寺) to this year 3. 1615–1623 · the 25th head rebuilds the temple after the Winter Siege of Osaka 4. Edo period · 正大工 chief carpenter on a retainer of 2 koku 3 to of rice a year (≈345 kg), building paid by the job 5. 1801 · lightning; the 32nd head leads an eleven-year rebuild and writes a 16-rule house code (職家心得之事) 6. 1814 · the family council removes a head: 職道不熟 "unskilled in the craft" 7. 金剛よしゑ Kongō Yoshie · 38th head, the first woman to lead the house, "Naniwa's woman master carpenter" 8. 1934 · the Muroto typhoon flattens the pagoda, and the rebuilding order comes to the house 9. 金剛利隆 Kongō Toshitaka · 39th head, chosen by Yoshie, 婿養子 muko-yōshi (adopted son-in-law) 10. 1955 · 株式会社金剛組, Kongō Gumi incorporated · 16 Jan 2006 · the business and most carpenters move to a new Kongō Gumi set up by Takamatsu Construction 📚 Sources • Sone Hidekazu (曽根秀一), 「リスクマネジメントとしての長寿企業の経営—金剛組を中心とする史的分析—」, 『危険と管理』 41 (2010), peer-reviewed: the 32nd head's house code, the genealogy chart, the 1814 removal, the 1982 and 2007 interviews • Sone Hidekazu, 「老舗企業の継承に伴う企業家精神の発露—宮大工企業による事業展開の比較分析—」, Venture Review 22 (2013), peer-reviewed: the family genealogy (金剛氏系図), the Edo rice stipend, adopted heirs, incorporation, the decline, the 39th and 40th heads' interviews • Mehrotra, Morck, Shim and Wiwattanakantang, "Adoptive Expectations: Rising Sons in Japanese Family Firms", NBER Working Paper 16874 (2011): adoption statistics, Suzuki Motor, adopted vs blood heirs • Kongō Gumi official history (kongogumi.co.jp) and Takamatsu Construction Group history • Shitennō-ji official history; Wikipedia JA 四天王寺 (Nihon Shoki: construction begins 593; the temple's fires and rebuilds) • Wikipedia JA 金剛組 (via Teikoku Databank): the 2005–06 transfer, KJ Kensetsu's July 2006 bankruptcy, debts of about ¥4 billion • Teikoku Databank: bankruptcies of 100-year-old firms, 2024 and January–August 2026 (published 25 Sep 2026) • Bank of Korea (2008), firms over 200 years old in 41 countries, via Yonhap and Wikipedia EN; Tokyo Shoko Research (2017) via Wikipedia JA 老舗 • Guinness World Records, oldest hotel (Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan, 705); Wikipedia EN Hōshi Ryokan • Wikipedia JA 室戸台風 (the 1934 Muroto typhoon); Wikipedia EN Kingdom of England (927) "You" is a composite carpenter, a different one each century, and the scenes are dramatized; Buchō is our recurring boss character. The heads of the house, Kongō Yoshie, Kongō Toshitaka, Osamu Suzuki and the companies named are real. Quotes come from the family's own documents and published interviews (our translations, via Sone 2010 and 2013). Kongō Gumi, Takamatsu Construction and Shitennō-ji did not take part in this video. Narration uses an AI voice. Script, research and fact-checking by Steve Shigoto — sources above. Spotted the clock at 5:59? Drop the timestamp. 🕔 Next: Ep 6, a 1920s Tokyo salaryman with a brand-new promise. #Japan #JapaneseHistory #KongoGumi