Japan has more than 33,000 businesses over 100 years old and roughly 3,000 over 200 years old — the highest concentration of ancient family businesses on earth — including a hotel called Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan that has been run by the same family since the year 705

Japan has more than 33,000 businesses over 100 years old and roughly 3,000 over 200 years old — the highest concentration of ancient family businesses on earth — including a hotel called Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan that has been run by the same family since the year 705

A hot spring at the foot of the Akaishi Mountains in Yamanashi Prefecture has been feeding the same bathhouse since the year 705. Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan, the inn built around it, opened during the reign of Emperor Monmu, seven years before the Kojiki, Japan’s oldest surviving chronicle, was completed in 712. It is still taking bookings. In 2011 Guinness World Records certified it as the oldest hotel on earth, a title it holds by a margin measu…