> There are probably more continuous family heritage firms in Japan practising some art (brewing, soy sauce, woodwork, coppicing) than anywhere else. Can you name a European family concern doing the same thing continuously since before 1600? I can't name any Japanese ones but I wouldn't be surprised if there were many. Institutional enterprises like Oxford university press exist since deep time, but in Japan it would be a continuous lineage of printers continuing to use woodblock printing (maybe alongside hot type or photo typesetting)
That's a bit exagerated. There are a lot of fields in Europe which keep traditions since the Middle Ages. Sure, the difference is the amount of people doing it, but it is still there.
Centuries old breweries in Germany, Czech Republic and Poland. Traditional tweed weaving in Scotland. Stone cutting and stained glass apprenticeship through "brotherhoods" in France. That is just on the top of my head. The only difference with Japan is that those markets have already shrunk to modern needs and those markets already went through centuries of heavy modernization. So one really traditional european company serves the market like tens would in Japan.
That's a bit exagerated. There are a lot of fields in Europe which keep traditions since the Middle Ages. Sure, the difference is the amount of people doing it, but it is still there.
Centuries old breweries in Germany, Czech Republic and Poland. Traditional tweed weaving in Scotland. Stone cutting and stained glass apprenticeship through "brotherhoods" in France. That is just on the top of my head. The only difference with Japan is that those markets have already shrunk to modern needs and those markets already went through centuries of heavy modernization. So one really traditional european company serves the market like tens would in Japan.
But the traditional know how is still there.