Two-Thirds of Japan’s Family Businesses with No Successor as Children Go Their Own Way

Japan Data

Economy
Family
Work

Apr 8, 2025

Many small businesses in Japan face the issue of finding a successor to continue running them, as children of the current owners often show no interest in taking over.

The M&A broker service provider Pear Capital selected 537 people whose parents had their own companies from a preliminary investigation of 3,000 people across Japan aged from 20 to 69, in order to survey them about whether or not they will take over their parents’ businesses.

The results revealed that 18.6% of those 537 respondents had “already taken over” and 16.8% “will take over in the future”. This left 64.6% who had “no intention of taking over.”

The most common reason for those who had no intention of carrying on the family business, with 51.3%, was that they “have something else I want to do.” This was followed by 32.0% who felt it was an “unstable way of life” and 23.3% who “don’t want the responsibility.”

When people whose parents were business owners or were self-employed were asked “as a child, did you want to do the same work as your parents?”, 68% answered “no.” Stating the reason, 49.0% said it was because “it looked difficult,” 32.4% had “already decided to do something different,” and 22.6% “thought I wouldn’t be able to earn enough from it.” It seems that seeing their parents struggling from up close made them decide while still young that they would not follow in their footsteps.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)

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