The 82-year-old entrepreneur founded his company nearly 40 years ago, but well past retirement age he has neither a successor nor a buyer for a business that retains loyal clients.
This picture taken on April 26, 2023 shows Hiroshi Miyaji, president of trucking company Yashio Group, during an interview with AFP in the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture. A 2019 government report estimated that about 1.27 million small business owners would be 70 or older by 2025 and have no successors.He once employed dozens of people, but now gets by with just two part-time workers after scaling back operations.
The trend could kill up to 6.5 million jobs and reduce the size of the Japanese economy by 22 trillion yen , the study warned. Compounding the problem is a feeling among some older Japanese that selling a family business to outsiders is shameful.Japan’s government has offered generous incentives to encourage sales, and the private sector has also jumped in to match investors with businesses for sale.Still, it reaches a fraction of the people who need it, said BATONZ president Yuichi Kamise.
Hiroshi Miyaji, 50, owns Yashio Group, a logistics giant started by his grandfather, and has snapped up various businesses.