Compares CEO appointments at major US and Japanese companies, organizing the data by the share promoted internally, years from joining the company, and differences by industry.
Based on data on CEO appointments in the United States and Japan, the article organizes promotion pathways into cases where executives rose through the ranks after joining as new graduates, cases where they joined from other companies and were promoted internally, and cases where they were brought in directly from outside.
In the United States, 30% of the 32 executives were promoted after joining as new graduates, while approximately 28% joined from other companies and subsequently rose through the ranks. In Japan, the share promoted after joining as new graduates is high at 75%, while direct appointments from other companies are uncommon.
The average time from joining a company to becoming CEO is 30.5 years in Japan and 18.9 years in the United States, making the period substantially longer in Japan. The article also points out that the relationship between a company’s age and an individual’s years of service differs by country.
By industry, the share promoted after joining as new graduates is low at 10% in US tech companies, compared with 89% in Japanese industry. In some cases, this difference exceeds the difference between the two countries.
Factors including the circumstances of a company’s founding, privatization, takeover bids and transfers within corporate groups also affect the differences in promotion pathways between Japan and the United States.