On May 1, market researcher Risk Monster released the results of its first ever “Companies the Japanese Can be Globally Proud Of” survey. Conducted February 25 to 27, the survey received valid responses from 1,000 men and women between the ages of 20 and 69. A total of 200 companies with annual sales of at least 250 billion yen and a minimum of 5,000 employees were targeted by the survey.

Coming in at number one was…

…Toyota Motor Corporation which grabbed the top response rate of 58.0 percent (multiple responses possible.)

Rounding out the top ten were:

No. 2, Sony, 43.2 %
No. 3, Honda, 39.5%
No. 4, Panasonic, 35.6%
No. 5, Nissan, 33.5%
No. 6, Canon, 32.0%
No. 7, Toshiba, 28.9%
No. 8, Bridgestone, 28.1%
No. 9, Nintendo, 27.8%
No. 10, Hitachi, 27.0 %

By industry, 19 of the top 20 companies were in manufacturing:

Automobiles, 3 (Toyota, Honda, Nissan)
Electrical machinery/devices, 8 (Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Sharp, Nikon)
Chemical, 2 (Fuji Film, Shiseido)
Other, 6 (Bridgestone, Nintendo, Toto, Ajinomoto, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Yamaha)

The only non-manufacturer cracking the top twenty was shipping company Yamato Transport, known by many in Japan simply as “Black Cat” transport.

Based on the findings Risk Monster said, “This outcome is the result of the high level of confidence placed in the technical capability of the Japanese manufacturing sector and the quality of its products.”

Top reasons given by respondents for their choices included “technical capability,” “development capability,” and “global market share.” “Performance overseas” also ranked high.

When looking at the top-ranking companies, almost all had high sales volumes and large domestic market shares.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News