14. Keeping It In The Family

 In her article, Emily Tamkin talks about why most of the oldest companies in the world are in the country of Japan. She begins by talking about the world's oldest hotel called Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Japan. She also talks about other companies before going in to reasoning why Japan has all these old companies. She then says that these companies have developed at an early time and remained standing today because of primogeniture- which is when the eldest son inherits all the patriarchal wealths. She also mentions that even after "primogeniture" was extinguished from culture in the 20th century, Japanese people keep it as a tradition and continue passing on all the inheritances to the eldest son. In other words, the oldest companies are family-owned businesses, which is why it lives to this day: families go on and on. She cites a professional named Hugh Whittaker: “The logic of doing business in Japan is a logic of commitment rather than a logic of choice.”  She then says that these types of businesses strike a delicate balance between continuation and innovation. The author writes the article in an informative tone, as if she were teaching her readers something new. She succeeds "teaching", because readers receive the answer to a question (in this case being "why the oldest companies are in Japan?) and are able to learn new things about a different culture. The author uses simple, understandable vocabulary so that any reader could easily understand what she says. Tamkin supports her findings with evidence such as the name of the Japanese companies and their locations. At times, the author also cites second-party evidences by using the words over other professionals such as Whittaker and Weinstein. Her article is an overall successful one- with a stable and informative tone, she shows her readers what she wants to share about Japan and the culture behind its old companies.
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/continuously_operating/2014/10/world_s_oldest_companies_why_are_so_many_of_them_in_japan.html