Top 10 Largest Japanese Companies in 2010

As of May 2019, we have updated this list.
You can find it here!
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We took the Forbes Global 2000 list and summarized where the Top 10 Japanese companies rank. The Top 10 list describes the type of industry that each company serves and lists the sales, profits, assets and market value for each company. Forbes ranks these global titans by a composite ranking from four metric – sales, profits, assets, and market value.

Some Surprises – Notice that global titans and household names like Sony and Toyota are off the Top 10 radar according to the Forbes list because of the recent challenging economic times.

No Surprise – Telecommunications is king in Japan and mobile technology is why NTT and KDDI made the list.

NTT gets 50% of its operating revenue comes from mobile and the rest is fixed telephone line.

As for KDDI, almost 75% of their business is mobile dominated and the rest in fixed telephone lines.

As a comparison, US telecommunications giant AT&T has 45% of its revenue from mobile and 25% is fixed telephone line.

Household names – Canon has three big business units focused on Office, Consumer and Industrial products. Most of the operating revenue comes from the consumer side of the business at over 40%. Honda operates from four business units- Motorcycles, Automobiles, Power products and Finance. Their biggest by far is the Automobile business bring in about 75% of their total operating revenue.

Who are they? There are some names on the list that some do not know.  If you have been to or dealt with Japan, these names would be familiar.

JFE is big in Steel and Construction/Engineering. 80% of their total sales is dominated by steel and the rest in shipbuilding, engineering, urban development and microelectronics.

East JR is the railway center of Japan. 17 million people daily use their trains and train stations and East JR leverages those millions every day with their networks of finance, hotels and shopping. Over 68% of their operating revenue comes from transportation.

Nippon Steel, gets 80% of their revenue from Steel and steel operations and the rest is divided into Engineering, Urban Development, Chemicals, New Materials, System Solutions Engineering and Construction.

From Textile Traders to diversified conglomerates – These days Japanese trading companies or Sogo shousha are more than middlemen collecting commission.

Mitsubishi established itself over 100 years ago as a shipping company and today is the largest Sogo shousha in Japan.  Hard to believe this giant is a trading company but its profits come from six major industries where 50% of their net income is from their Metals.

Mitsui has orgins back to Edo period in textile trade. Today, Mitsui has transformed themselves from an intermediary to a total solutions provider from raw materials to retailing.  Most of their gross profit comes from their energy businesses.

Sumitomo derives over 45% of its operating profit from Metal products, Electric power business , Copper & gold mining.  Rest is from Media business, Retail business, Real estate, Construction equipment and Oilfield development.

Enjoy the list!