Toyota Makes More Money Than Any Other Japanese Company

Toyota generated $298.3 billion in revenues between April 2023 and March 2024, more than double the amount of Honda, the Japanese public company with the second-highest revenue in the last fiscal year, according to sales data aggregated by Nikkei. While tech and tech-adjacent companies from Japan traditionally aren't as highly valued as their Chinese and U.S. counterparts, Toyota's financial performance earned the corporation a spot among the 50 publicly traded companies with the highest market capitalization. Coming in 44th puts Toyota ahead of firms like Nestlé, McDonald's or Shell.

The market power of Toyota is also apparent in the fact that even combining the revenues of Honda and Mitsubishi Corporation for their fiscal year 2024 doesn't add up to the automaker's total revenue for that period. Despite Japanese car brands' popularity around the world, only two of the top 8 companies from Japan with the highest revenues manufacture vehicles; even though they carry the same name, Mitsubishi Motors is not part of the general trading company Mitsubishi Corporation, but rather the Mitsubishi Group. Additionally, Nissan has owned a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors since 2016.

The importance of general trading multinationals dealing in a variety of goods can also be seen by the ranking of Itōchū Shōji ($92.8 billion) and Mitsui & Co. ($88,1 billion). With Eneos Holdings, a company active in the oil, gas and mining industries, as well as telecommunications provider NTT and electronics manufacturer Sony, industries more closely associated with high revenues in the West are also present in the top 8.