There are 100,000 companies in Japan that have over 100 years of establishment!
Common points between long-established firms and craftsmen who the world faces?
Life・Society 2017.04.04
記事提供：まぐまぐニュース！
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KONGOUGUMI Around 1930（Wikipedia）In an article posted on the other day "Why do long-established stores remain in Japan and Korea does not have shops that continue in three generations? ", I told that Japanese merchants have a spirit that leads to "Bushido", but established firms Are still driving the industry in various fields, there seems to be other reasons.
In this free e-mail newsletter "Japan on the Globe - International School Japanese Training Course" ;, we are closing the secret while raising four companies as an example.
Innovation of established firms
Japan is a "long-established enterprise power country" that is outstanding in the world. There are many companies that can be called long-established stores with over 100 years of establishment, among which more than 100,000 companies are estimated to include personal shops and small and medium enterprises.Among them is a construction company that is said to be the oldest company in the world and handles restoration and construction of wooden buildings such as shrines, temples and castles designated as important cultural assets.
Asuka period, founded in 578 AD and founded in 1400, the construction company "Kongougumi;, inherited from ancient techniques to modern times, is it that it will be the foundation 1300 years Many old business establishments over 1000 years, such as Hokuriku Inn and Kyoto's sweet shop over 1200 years, are also few.
In Europe there is the "Enokian Association" that only companies of more than 200 years are allowed to join, but the oldest member is an Italian goldsmaker founded in 1369. However, there are nearly 100 companies and shops in Japan that are older than this.
In the neighboring Korea it is commonly said that "there are no shops that will last for three generations," and there are at most only a few companies that have been founded for about 80 years.
In China, "The world's largest Chinese herbal medicine manufacturer" Beijing Dongjido founded about 340 years, and there are some established long-established stores over 100 years such as Chinese tea and calligraphy tools.
●(Related article)
Why many long-established stores in Japan, do not Korea have shops that go on also in three generations?
Even more interesting are about 45 thousand out of a hundred thousand long-established firms with over 100 years manufacturing industry, including not only traditional crafts fields but also information technology fields such as mobile phones and computers, There are not a few companies that are active in advanced technology fields such as biotechnology.
A fine line of gold with a thinness of 1/8 of the hair
One such company is "Tanaka Kikinzoku Industry" in Tokyo. In 1885 I left as a money exchange trader "Tanaka Shoten" at Nihonbashi in Tokyo. In 1889, succeeded in domestic production of platinum as an industrial product. Since then, we have traded and processed precious metals as two pillars.Tanaka Kikinzoku Industry
One of the current representative products is the fine line of gold. It is the thinnest one with a diameter of 0.01 mm and a thinness as thin as 1/8 of the hair.
For example, an ultrasonic motor with a size of about 4 mm is used for vibrating with a cellular phone, but a very fine wire is used for the brush. Besides that, it is also applied to ultra-small motors that move mirrors of cars.
Gold does not rust, it is strong against heat and chemicals, and its conductivity is also high. It can be made thinner and longer. If 1 gram of pure gold is 0.05 mm in diameter, it will be 3,000 meters.
The features of such precious metals are withdrawn by processing technology that has been refined over many years. Many of the fine lines of gold used around the world now are supplied by Tanaka Kikinzoku.
The company further continues innovative latest research and development that brings out new characteristics of precious metals, such as suppressing the growth of cancer cells in platinum, adding cadmium to silver and improving performance as contact points.
Shigeto Hongo, head of the company's technology development department, says:
From the precious metals, I feel like they are going to put out such characteristics to the world and say they are going out. We are not looking for characteristics.
I think that it is our job to strive to make something out to the world and say what it says to go out.
Source: ("Million years, I have worked - a long-established company big country Nippon" Susumu Nomura / Kadokawa Group Publishing)
Gilt leaves a person's heart
Among cellular phones, copper foil for flexible printed circuit board wiring that can be bent is the "Fukuda Metal Foil Powder Industry" in Kyoto that accounts for 90% of the world market share together with one rival in Japan .Fukuda Metal Foil Powder Industry
Established dating back to 1700 when Kyoto · Muromachi began trading gold and silver foil powder. It is a long-established store whose founding is over 300 years. Since then, we have come to a source of foil powder technology such as tin foil, aluminum foil, copper powder, aluminum powder etc.
The gold leaf technology came to Japan with Buddhism. Gilt was widely used for decoration of temples, Buddha statues, Buddhist objects. At that time, gold leaf method gripped gold particles in furry of raccoon, and hit with a hammer to stretch.
Like extra fine lines, stretch to as thin as 1/8 of the hair. Speaking in terms of proportion, we will extend gold coins with a diameter of 23 mm to the size of 1800 × 900 mm.
Among traditional craftsmen, it is said to be as follows.
The gold leaf reads the person's heart. I do not listen to what I say when I'm in a bad mood. Sometimes they ridicule. Because gold leaf is alive.
Source: ("Million years, I have worked - a long-established company big country Nippon" Susumu Nomura / Kadokawa Group Publishing)
Fukuda Metal Foil Powder Industry will continue to make the best quality copper foil in the world, inheriting such a craftmind temperament.
"Modern Japanese did not bring out the power of rice"
Yushin Sake Brewing Co., Ltd. in Kagawa Prefecture, founded in 1854, already has a history of over 160 years. Current owner Takashi Tokuyama is the fifth generation since the first generation.Yushin Sake Brewing Co., Ltd.
Mr. Tokuyama was 30 years old and his age when he succeeded to Yongsheng Brewery was said that the Japanese sake industry has already been in a stagnant demand industry. From that kind of old-fashioned brewery going bankrupt and one after another. Mr. Tokuyama who studied yeast at the University of Tokyo graduate studied yeast and combined rice with brewing and fermentation technology to create products with high added value.
In the case of rice, there are technologies of very excellent brewing, fermentation and extraction such as Japanese sake, miso, soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, or shochu and amasake, but since the Meiji era, new application development is totally said to be totally It was not done.
In other words, since the Japanese entered the modern era, Japanese did not withdraw the power of rice, and neglected efforts to cultivate the market and expand demand. ...
Now that modern science is stalled, we have been working on rice to link the technology of agriculture, brewing and fermentation like rice making, once again to make something with high added value.
Source: ("Million years, I have worked - a long-established company big country Nippon" Susumu Nomura / Kadokawa Group Publishing)
While selling out the ancestral land, over 100 million yen has been injected into research and development every year.
Long ago, with the hint of the description of the ancient document that rice was used as a poultice medicine, it finally developed and sold a bath additive with Rice Power Extract in 1988, it quickly grew to 3 million hit products annually did.
Nature "being alive"
However, one major pharmaceutical company acquired the manufacturing method developed by Mr. Tokuyama as a fraud counterpart and sold similar products, so sales declined drastically, and it fell into the bankruptcy one step short.There, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry financed 360 million yen through the Industrial Infrastructure Improvement Fund, and the president of the local mail order company lent me 100 million yen, "It is probably in trouble with funds."
Based on that, Mr. Tokuyama continued product development, and in 2002 released "Atopi Smile" which is effective for atopic dermatitis.
Since there were no side effects of steroid drugs used until then, mothers with children with atopic dermatitis gained popularity as "savior" and selling 120 thousand books in just one year alone.
Furthermore, from "Kose," a cosmetic company, "Moisture skin repair" that improves skin moisture retention capacity is sold, it became a huge hit product exceeding 1 million books per year.
Mr. Tokuyama says that it is Japanese type biotechnology to develop safe new products by combining western-style biotechnology such as genetically modified organisms and other fermentation technologies of ancient Japan.
I think transcending Western humanism as 'humanitarianism' is a terrible mistranslation. A scholar has said, but that should be translated as "human-centered." In other words, the idea that "everything will live" centered on humans.
Therefore, the divergence between human beings and nature is getting bigger and bigger. One environmental problem can not be solved. I think that such human centricism has already become stalemate.
On the other hand, there is an idea that the oriental nature "is alive". I think that many microorganisms have helped me and I think that it is "being alive".
Source: ("Million years, I have worked - a long-established company big country Nippon" Susumu Nomura / Kadokawa Group Publishing)
Japanese ancient tree wax technology was adopted as a copy machine
"CERALICA NODA CORPORATION" seems to be a contemporary company, but its founding in 1832, already has a history close to 180 years. I have been manufacturing and selling wood raw in Fukuoka.CERALICA NODA CORPORATION
The tree wax was made by extracting the fats contained in the fruit such as the larch tree of the lacquer ware, and it was used for candle and crushed oil. It has been used as a raw material for male hair dressing pomade since entering the modern era.
However, when a new hair dressing such as hair tonic appeared around 1970, the project was in danger.
Just around that time, the former president died suddenly and Mr. Taizo Noda, a son who studied information behavior science at Hiroshima University, took over the company in a hurry.
When Mr. Noda thought that there was a new use of wood braid, what inspired me was the idea of whether it can be used as a toner for a copying machine from the knowledge of the information field I learned.
Thin wax is easy to dissolve in heat, and then solidifies soon. Taking advantage of this feature, you should be able to produce toner that is easy to print and scratchy.
Normally the copier industry has been increasingly concerned about creating completely new toners in order to break down the exclusivity of Xerox of America.
Mr. Noda sells in "Canon and Ricoh" by jumping and was adopted one after another as an additive of toner when its assertion was backed up by experiments.
In this way, Japanese ancient tree wax technology was adopted at the cutting edge of the information industry.
To 'make the best use'
The wax can also be collected from insects. Silverworm is a pest sucking sap, but it secretes a white "snow row". Since this snow bowl is shiny and chemically very stable, it has promising potential as a raw material for moisture-proofing agents, lubricants and color inks.In collaboration with the Chinese side, Ms. Noda planted 500,000 trees that the bamboo shoots prefer in Yunnan Province and Sichuan Province in the inland province. Let them eat this and let the snow loquat secret more and more. Local farmers collect it, commercialize it in Japan and sell it.
At the same time we can pursue environmental conservation in China and relief of farmer's poverty. Mr. Noda said.
Humans have become like the king of the earth, but insects exist as approximately 1.8 million different species.
Even so, it is about human bees and silkworms that human beings considered as "beneficial insects" and most of them used to treat "pests" as disturbing persons.
Is that why you killed them more with pesticides and insecticides? Just by such value from human beings, the idea of eliminating hindrances is also leading to the act of destroying nature for development.
Source: ("Million years, I have worked - a long-established company big country Nippon" Susumu Nomura / Kadokawa Group Publishing)
Mr. Noda explains that it is necessary to switch from "the idea to kill" to "the idea to make use of" until now.
Commonality of long-established companies
In the above, we introduced some examples of long-established Japanese firms surviving in modern society strongly, but there is a certain commonality there.● First, each company makes use of traditional technologies, such as foil powder technology and brewing / fermentation technology, for new products that modern society needs. As time goes on, consumer lifestyles change and technology advances, so that what is needed also changes.
If they clung to old goods such as candles, these companies would not be able to overcome the wave of the times. There is a word "tradition is continuous of innovation", companies that have continued their innovation continue as long-established stores.
● Second, innovation is not separated from the technology of one 's main business. There is an example that a brewery company of 200 years of establishment in Nada Ward in Kobe City went bankrupt as a karaoke or money lending business management started.
Through our core business, we have accumulated a lot of proprietary technologies and we have the strengths of a long-established store, apart from that, it is no different from new entrants.
● Thirdly, as seen in words such as "gold leaf is alive" "being made alive by nature" "thought to live", in the nature's "living things", its mysterious power Withdrawing it, and connecting it to innovative product development.
This is an idea based on the traditional view of nature in our country and it is a very rational and comprehensive approach to supplement the weaknesses and weaknesses of "human centristism" of Western science and technology.
If researchers and engineers who only learned Western science and technology at university took the same research and development approach as Western companies, they would fight in the same field, but would not have their own strengths.
The traditional nature view of Japan remained in the long-established company, which may have brought its own technological innovation.
A long-established store / craftsmen 's large country · Japan
Of Asia's billionaires 100, more than half is said to be a Chinese company including overseas Chinese. None of them have been in business for more than 100 years. It is "a firm that is built up" by the founder first generation or second generation.Compared to this, it is comparatively small on a company scale, but it is indeed contrary to Japan with over 100,000 old businesses with over 100,000 firms.
Mr. Susumu Nomura, author of "Millennial, has worked" advocates an interesting concept of "Asia of merchant" and "Asia of craftsmen". That is why, as a "merchant", it is possible to achieve such rapid growth that one can become a billionaire by one of the founders' wisdom.
However, there is no proprietary technology to support the business there, so if the founder replaces it will also fall down quickly.
On the other hand, "craftsman" takes many generations to hone technology, and does not suddenly become rich, but if you make use of that technology, you can overcome the transition of the times and run the business.
If we take advantage of the wisdom of management that these long-established companies show in the whole nation, Japan will be able to keep happy forever as a long-established and craftsmen 's powerful country
Censure: Masaomi Ise
http://blog.jog-net.jp/profile.html
