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Japan’s century-old companies are going bankrupt at a record pace in 2026—but the latest figure is only a partial-year count. Teikoku Databank recorded 112 legal bankruptcies among firms with at least 100 years of history from January through August 2026. The total was tracking above 160 for the year, potentially surpassing the previous annual high of 146, recorded in 2024. These figures measure bankruptcies, not every business that closes.
What the 2026 figures show—and what they do not
The 112 failures are legal bankruptcies recorded between January 1 and August 31, 2026, among companies with liabilities of at least ¥10 million. They are not a final 2026 total. Teikoku Databank described the count as a pace that could exceed the previous annual record; it is a projection based on eight months of data, not a confirmed year-end result. Teikoku Databank’s January–August 2026 report gives the count and its scope.
Nor does a rise in failures mean Japan’s century-old-company population is shrinking overall. Teikoku Databank counted 46,708 firms with at least 100 years of history as of December 2025, equal to 3.11% of its company population. It expected roughly 2,000 more firms to reach the century mark during 2026. New entrants can therefore outnumber exits even while bankruptcies rise. The count is a database-based estimate, not a complete official census: TDB drew on its COSMOS2 business database and independently collected records for firms with confirmed operating activity. Its 2025 inventory of long-established companies explains the figures and method.
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“Closing” can mean a voluntary suspension, closure, or dissolution rather than a legal bankruptcy. TDB counted 67,949 such cases across Japanese businesses in 2025, down 1.6% from 69,019 in 2024. The 2025 total was still the second-highest in the preceding decade. This is a separate, all-company series that explicitly excludes legal bankruptcies; it should not be added to the century-old firms’ bankruptcy count as if both were parts of one clean, mutually exclusive total.
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TDB also cautions that a recorded voluntary exit does not prove a business will never resume operations. A case can later enter legal proceedings and be counted as a bankruptcy. The figures describe different recorded outcomes, not an exact tally of every firm that permanently vanished. TDB’s 2025 report on suspensions, closures, and dissolutions sets out these qualifications.
Why some century-old firms are failing
In its January–August 2026 century-old-company data, TDB identifies difficulty with business succession and rising prices as key pressures. The report’s case mix shows that failures are not confined to one trade: manufacturing accounted for 34 of the 112 bankruptcies, wholesale for 24, and retail for 22. Half of the cases—56—had liabilities below ¥100 million, while four had liabilities of at least ¥1 billion. Three involved compliance failures, including off-book debt or inflated receivables or inventory.
Succession and rising costs
Passing a company to a new generation can be difficult even when the business has endured for decades. A long history is not a succession plan, and a firm still needs people willing and able to take over its operations. TDB’s report names succession difficulty alongside higher prices as factors in the century-old bankruptcies, but it does not give a complete numerical breakdown of causes for those 112 cases.
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Broader exit data add context, but they should not be mistaken for a century-old-company cause count. Across all Japanese businesses, TDB reported an average manager age of 71.5 years at voluntary exit in 2025 and described pressure from energy and labor costs, aging managers, succession problems, and labor shortages. The OECD’s 2026 Japan survey also cites the 71.5-year figure and discusses owner ageing and weak succession transitions. TDB’s exit report and the OECD’s 2026 Japan survey describe that wider context.
National bankruptcy classifications point to similar pressures, without establishing that they affected century-old companies in the same proportions. TDB recorded 427 labor-shortage bankruptcies and 949 high-price bankruptcies across all firms in 2025, both records in its classifications. It also counted 503 bankruptcies in which difficulty finding a successor was an issue, down for a second consecutive year. These are all-company figures, not a breakdown of the century-old subgroup. TDB’s 2025 business-failures summary reports those figures.
Financial and governance failures
The individual cases show why longevity alone cannot protect a company from a cash-flow crisis or weak controls. Kano-gumi, a waterworks contractor founded in 1925, failed with about ¥3.6 billion in liabilities after undisclosed debt associated with real-estate investment contributed to a cash-flow crisis. Onobe Seikanjo, a paper-packaging maker founded in 1901, went bankrupt after receivables and inventory had been inflated for more than a decade. TDB reports both cases in its 2026 analysis.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read the numbers against Japan’s business history
TDB’s 2025 inventory found that nine out of ten long-established firms were founded or established during the Meiji or Taishō periods, while about 3,600 dated to the Edo period or earlier. Manufacturing was the largest broad sector, followed by retail and wholesale. The century-old cohort is therefore diverse: its members span different industries, business models, and generations of ownership.
An older comparison is easy to misread. TDB counted 461 bankruptcies, suspensions, and dissolutions among century-old firms in fiscal 2017, then a record for that combined series. Because it combines legal bankruptcies with voluntary exits, it is not directly comparable with 112 bankruptcy-only cases from January–August 2026. The 2017 report also identified lodging, liquor retail, office leasing, and clothing retail among leading detailed sectors. TDB’s 2018 analysis of long-established-company exits describes that historical measure.
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The clearest conclusion
Japan’s century-old businesses are experiencing a sharp rise in legal failures, with 112 bankruptcies in the first eight months of 2026 and a possible record for the full year. But “disappearing” needs qualification: bankruptcy is not the same as voluntary closure, the 2026 count is incomplete, and the population of companies reaching 100 years can keep growing at the same time. The pressures TDB identifies—succession difficulty and higher prices—operate alongside company-specific problems such as cash-flow strain and accounting or compliance failures.
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