A special report on Japan Corporate euthanasia To boost productivity at home, Japan needs to kill off some of its old, unprofitable companies

THE oldest company in the world is Kongo Gumi, a construction firm based in Osaka. It started building Buddhist shrines in 578AD, and was still run by a man surnamed Kongo 40 generations later. The next four firms by age are also Japanese. According to Yasuchika Hasegawa, chief executive of Takeda Pharmaceuticals (founded in 1781), more than 20,000 Japanese firms are at least 100 years old.