1,400-year-old Japanese Business Kaput

So what makes for a stable business in Japan? Building temples of course.

The world’s oldest continuously operating family business ended its impressive run last year. Japanese temple builder Kongo Gumi, in operation under the founders’ descendants since 578, succumbed to excess debt and an unfavorable business climate in 2006.

This quote comes from an article at BusinessWeek, that, while obvioulsy written from a business standpoint, is quite fascinating.

7 comments - What do you think? Posted by Claytonian - April 18, 2007 at 1:21 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags:

http://www.japanprobe.com James

More information, and a picture, can be found in a Chosun Ilbo article from 2005 about this:
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200512/200512150009.html
http://swiftywriting.blogspot.com Swifty

… bummer.
Chris

Well, this is depressing.
http://scavenge.wordpress.com/ Sven

Absolutely flabbergasting that business could be around for that long. Wow. Sorry to hear them go.
http://heyneatjp.blogspot.com/ Kaspian

I would have thought someone would at least scoop up the company to keep it going. There’s got to be some sort of value to be able to say that your company is over 1,400 years old, even if under new owners, or if it were to go beyond building just temples. In any case, it’s sad to hear the company is no more.
http://tofusando.blogspot.com Akoua Doffou

Too bad the company failed, over 1,400 years later. What a put-down…
Pingback: Bitácora de la empresa familiar » Blog Archive » La empresa más antigua del mundo cierra tras 1.428 años de actividad

1,400-year-old Japanese Business Kaput

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