Japan has one of the highest adoption¹ rates in the world, with over 80,000 legal adoptions² recorded every year. Yet when it comes to adopting children, the Asian country is lagging way behind most developed countries. That's because around 98% of Japanese adoptees are bright young men in their 20s and 30s.

 

日本是世界上收养率最高的国家之一，每年的合法收养记录超过8万。但是日本在收养儿童发面仍落后于大多数发达国家。这是因为日本98%的被收养人都是二三十岁的年轻男性。

 

At the same time, while studies have shown that family-controlled businesses are generally unsustainable over long periods of time - mostly due to the fact that business acumen³ and intelligence are only partially⁴ inherited - it's interesting to see that not only are a third of Japanese corporations family-run, but they are also clearly outperforming professionally managed companies in almost every way. Statistics show that family firms are more profitable, have a higher market valuation and increased sales compared to their rivals. Even more curious is that giants like Suzuki, Toyota or Matsui Securities have managed to keep it all in the family for over a hundred years, and other family businesses for even longer than that.

 

But what does the remarkable⁵ success of family business have to do with the high rate of adult adoption, right? Well, in Japan at least, these two curiosities are very closely linked. Prior to the Second World War, civil code in Japan decreed family wealth could only be passed down through male lines, traditionally to the first born son. So families with no male heirs or with sons deemed unsuitable to take over the family business turned to adoption, but not the kind most of us are used to. Instead of simply adopting a baby or a young boy, they adopted young men who displayed the intelligence and knowledge of business required to ensure that their name and legacy⁶ endured until the next generation. And while the law no longer prohibits people from passing down their fortune to female heirs, the age-old tradition of electing a 'mukoyoshi' (or 'adopted son-in-law') is still very popular in Japan.

 

The vast majority of adoptions in Japan have little to do with kindness and generosity⁷ and a lot to do with mercantilism and the fear of losing centuries-old family names. Genes⁸ are not that reliable, which is why most family businesses stagnate⁹ and eventually go downhill after their founder's death. But in Japan, you can find family-run businesses dating back over a millennium¹⁰. According to Wikipedia the top five world's oldest businesses are Japanese, with the oldest of them, a Buddhist¹¹ temple builder called Kongō Gumi, having been founded in the year 578. It remained a family-run business until 2006, when it was absorbed by the Takamatsu Construction Group.

 

While some people may see the Japanese adult adoption as wrong or just plain weird¹², studies have found that it is a very effective way of keeping family businesses healthy over long periods of time. According to The New Economy, "adopting highly qualified¹³ adults to head family businesses has the triple effect of displacing untalented blood heirs, eliciting¹⁴ better performance from managers who stand to be placed on a fast-track to ownership by becoming an adopted son, and encouraging proactivity among blood heirs who live under constant threat of being replaced by a 'superior' adopted son."

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