Mitsui & Co. scored 4.83 out of 5 in OpenWork’s 2026 employee-review ranking. Disco, a semiconductor equipment maker, placed first among large employers in Great Place To Work Japan’s 2026 list.
This guide to the best companies to work for in Japan sets four 2026 rankings side by side: staff reviews, workplace surveys, student preference and average pay. National engagement, wage and hiring data follow.
Best Companies To Work For In Japan
Which Company Ranks First Among the Best Companies to Work For in Japan?
| Rank | Company | Score (out of 5) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitsui & Co. | 4.83 |
| 2 | Dentsu | 4.78 |
| 3 | P&G Japan | 4.68 |
| 4 | ABeam Consulting | 4.66 |
| 5 | PwC Consulting | 4.65 |
| 6 | Tokyo Electron | 4.60 |
| 7 | Suntory Holdings | 4.57 |
| 8 | Boston Consulting Group | 4.52 |
| 9 | Tokyu Livable | 4.51 |
| 10 | ABeam Systems | 4.50 |
Source: OpenWork, Best Companies to Work For Ranking 2026, reviews posted January–December 2025
Mitsui & Co. leads with 4.83, and Dentsu follows at 4.78. Consulting firms take three of the ten places: ABeam Consulting, PwC Consulting and Boston Consulting Group.
Sony sits just outside at 11th with 4.49, tied on score with 12th-placed Recruit.
OpenWork counted reviews posted in 2025 by current staff or people who left that year. Each needed at least one year of tenure, 500 or more characters and ratings in eight categories, and the pool covered 19,681 companies.
Mitsui’s regular OpenWork company page, whose figures differ from the award’s limited window, lists 32.4 hours of monthly overtime and 64.4% paid-leave use from 665 respondents. Hours across countries are compared in these four-day workweek figures.
Source: OpenWork, ranking methodology and Mitsui & Co. company page, accessed September 2026
How Did 2025 Leaders Score in the 2026 Edition?
Mitsui & Co. moved from third in the 2025 edition to first. Dentsu slipped from first to second.
Tokyu Livable climbed from 38th to ninth. Salesforce Japan, second in 2025, is absent from the 2026 top 50.
Source: OpenWork, Best Companies to Work For Rankings 2025 and 2026 editions
Disco Is the First Japanese Large-Company Winner Since the 2017 Edition
Great Place To Work Japan surveyed 683 companies between July 2024 and September 2025. It ranked 100: 15 large, 40 medium and 45 small.
Disco rose from fourth to first among firms with 1,000 or more employees. GPTW Japan says a Japanese company last topped that category in the 2017 edition.
| Rank | Company (1,000+ staff) | Sector | 2025 rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Disco | Manufacturing | 4 |
| 2 | Cisco | IT | 2 |
| 3 | Salesforce Japan | IT | 5 |
| 4 | Hilton | Hospitality | 3 |
| 5 | Rakus | IT | 9 |
| 6 | NorthSand | IT | 10 |
| 7 | MetLife Insurance | Financial services and insurance | Not ranked |
| 8 | SmartHR | IT | 13 |
| 9 | Plan・Do・See | Hospitality | Not ranked |
| 10 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise Japan | IT | Not ranked |
Source: Great Place To Work Institute Japan, 2026 Best Workplaces ranking, published February 6, 2026; survey period July 2024–September 2025
IT firms fill six of the ten places. How U.S. tech employers split between office and remote work is covered in these return-to-office statistics.
Nacht won the medium category and Event21 the small one, so Japanese companies led all three size groups.
Best Companies to Work For in Japan by Average Salary
Hulic tops Toyo Keizai’s ranking of Tokyo-headquartered listed companies at ¥22.95 million, up from ¥20.35 million the prior fiscal year. Seven of the ten averaged ¥20 million or more.
| Rank | Company | Average salary (¥ million) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hulic | 22.95 |
| 2 | M&A Capital Partners | 22.65 |
| 3 | Integral | 21.35 |
| 4 | Mitsubishi Corporation | 21.12 |
| 5 | Mitsui & Co. | 20.58 |
| 6 | SanBio | 20.22 |
| 7 | Mercuria Holdings | 20.08 |
| 8 | Disco | 18.79 |
| 9 | Mitsui Fudosan | 18.55 |
| 10 | Sumitomo Corporation | 18.40 |
Source: Toyo Keizai Online, August 18, 2026; single-company averages from securities reports for fiscal years ending April 2025–March 2026, firms with 20+ employees
Listed companies publish these averages in annual securities reports. Disclosure rules in the U.S. and EU are tracked in these salary transparency statistics.
Mynavi-Nikkei 2027 Graduate Poll: Nitori and Ajinomoto Lead
Nitori placed first with humanities students for a fourth straight year, with 1,043 votes. Ajinomoto topped the science list for the first time with 460.
Mynavi and Nikkei polled 34,905 students due to graduate in March 2027, from October 1, 2025 to March 23, 2026. Respondents came through Mynavi’s job site, magazines and events, and each could name up to five companies.
Humanities Students’ Top 10
Sega rose from 13th to fifth. Mizuho Financial Group fell from second to ninth.
Source: Mynavi Career Research Lab, Mynavi-Nikkei 2027 Graduates’ Popular Employer Ranking, April 20, 2026
Science Students’ Top 10
| Rank | Company | Votes | Prior-year rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajinomoto | 460 | 2 |
| 2 | Sky | 331 | 3 |
| 3 | KDDI | 270 | 4 |
| 4 | Honda | 252 | 13 |
| 5 | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries | 219 | 7 |
| 6 | Daikin Industries | 216 | 115 |
| 7 | Denso | 215 | 10 |
| 8 | Toyota Motor | 210 | 8 |
| 9 | Sega | 191 | 11 |
| 10 | Panasonic Group | 180 | 5 |
Source: Mynavi Career Research Lab, Mynavi-Nikkei 2027 Graduates’ Popular Employer Ranking, April 20, 2026
Daikin Industries jumped from 115th to sixth. Toyota Motor held eighth, and ranks eighth with humanities students too.
Which Employers Appear on More Than One List?
Mitsui & Co. ranks first on OpenWork and fifth for Tokyo average pay at ¥20.58 million.
Disco pairs its GPTW win with eighth place for pay at ¥18.79 million. It does not appear in OpenWork’s 2026 top 50.
Mitsubishi Corporation ranks 24th on OpenWork at 4.38 and fourth for pay. Sumitomo Corporation sits 18th at 4.44 and tenth for pay.
Sky appears three times: 23rd on OpenWork, tenth with humanities students and second with science students.
None of OpenWork’s top 10 appears in either student top 10. The same multi-list view for Dutch employers is in the best companies to work for in the Netherlands.
Sources: OpenWork, 2026 ranking; GPTW Japan, 2026 ranking; Toyo Keizai, August 2026; Mynavi-Nikkei, class of 2027 poll
8% Engaged: The Workplace Backdrop Behind the Best Companies to Work For in Japan
How Engaged Are Japanese Employees?
Gallup puts engaged employees in Japan at 8%, with 71% not engaged and 21% actively disengaged. Figures are three-year averages ending in 2025.
East Asia averaged 18% engaged and the world 20%. Wider AI and remote-work shifts appear in these future of work statistics.
Japan’s engaged share stayed between 5% and 8% in every three-year window from 2012 to 2025.
Daily stress ran lower: 39% of Japanese employees reported it, against 46% in East Asia and 40% globally.
Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report, Japan country data, collected January–December 2025
How Much Did Pay Rise in 2026?
Rengo’s final spring tally put the average raise at ¥16,400, or 5.01%, across 5,368 unions. The rate was 0.24 points below the same point in 2025 and above 5% for a third year.
Unions with under 300 members averaged ¥12,866, or 4.69%, up 0.04 points. Fixed-term, part-time and contract workers gained ¥75.01 an hour, about 6.18%.
Source: Rengo, 2026 Shunto 7th (final) response tally, as of July 1, 2026
How Tight Is Hiring?
The seasonally adjusted jobs-to-applicants ratio was 1.18 in July 2026, unchanged from June. The ratio for regular employees stood at 1.00, and new openings per new applicant at 2.10.
Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Employment Referrals for General Workers, January–July 2026 releases
Unemployment fell 0.1 points to 2.4% in July 2026, seasonally adjusted.
Source: Statistics Bureau of Japan, Labour Force Survey, July 2026
Best Companies to Work For in Japan for Foreign Workers
Employers reported 2,571,037 foreign workers at the end of October 2025, up 268,450, or 11.7%, from a year earlier. Manufacturing employed 24.7% of them.
| Nationality | Foreign workers | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Vietnam | 605,906 | 23.6% |
| China | 431,949 | 16.8% |
| Philippines | 260,869 | 10.1% |
Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Foreign Employment Status Notifications, as of end-October 2025
Holders of professional and technical residence statuses formed the largest group, at 865,588 or 33.7%.
Foreign-affiliated firms hold several ranking places. P&G Japan, PwC Consulting and Boston Consulting Group sit in OpenWork’s top 10, while Cisco, Salesforce Japan and Hilton make GPTW’s large-company top five.
Sources: OpenWork, 2026 ranking; GPTW Japan, 2026 ranking
FAQs
Which company is the best to work for in Japan?
Mitsui & Co. topped OpenWork’s 2026 ranking with 4.83 out of 5, based on 2025 employee reviews. Disco ranked first among large employers in Great Place To Work Japan’s 2026 list.
Which company in Japan has the highest average salary?
Among Tokyo-headquartered listed companies, Hulic led at ¥22.95 million in Toyo Keizai’s August 2026 ranking, using securities reports for fiscal years ending April 2025 to March 2026. M&A Capital Partners followed at ¥22.65 million.
What company do Japanese students most want to join?
Nitori led humanities students with 1,043 votes, and Ajinomoto led science students with 460, in the Mynavi-Nikkei poll of 34,905 students graduating in March 2027.
Are Japanese employees engaged at work?
Few are. Gallup’s 2026 report puts engaged employees in Japan at 8%, with 71% not engaged and 21% actively disengaged, against an East Asia average of 18%.
Is Reddit reliable for judging the best companies to work for in Japan?
Reddit threads offer individual accounts without a stated sample. OpenWork’s 2026 ranking drew on reviews covering 19,681 companies, each from staff with at least one year of tenure and 500 or more characters.
Citations
https://www.openwork.jp/award/ranking
https://hatarakigai.info/news/2026/0206_5326.html
https://career-research.mynavi.jp/reserch/20260420_109950/
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/705794/state-global-workplace-japan-country-level-data.aspx
