A large Japanese company groups its departments into divisions, each called a honbu: a sales division, a manufacturing division, a corporate planning division. The honbucho runs it, with several bucho reporting in. It is usually the top line-management post below the officers and the board, and at many companies the honbucho is also an executive officer or a director, so the business card reads executive officer and head of the sales division, or similar.
Not every company uses the layer. Smaller firms go straight from bucho to the board, and some use other words for the same level, such as jigyo honbucho for a business unit head. Others have deputy honbucho posts in between. As with all line titles below the board, the company decides what the title means. Wage statistics do not track the honbucho level separately.
Because it often sits at the boundary between employment and office, a honbucho may be a senior employee, an employee-type executive officer or a mandate-type officer. The difference matters for overtime exemption, notice and exit.
What it means for a foreign employer
- This is the general manager you are often looking for. A honbucho at a large Japanese company runs several departments, a large budget and often a profit-and-loss. It maps to Vice President or Head of a business line more often than to Director.
- Expect title to be part of the negotiation. A honbucho will not move to a role that reads as a department head. Reporting line, the title in Japanese and a seat on the local leadership team matter.
- Check the employment status. If the candidate is also an executive officer, find out whether they are an employee or on a mandate contract, and whether their retirement allowance has already been paid.
- Count the bucho under them. It is the quickest test of real scope.
Sources
- Company practice; no statutory definition.