Yokohamaruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Automotive & mobility
Nissan, Isuzu, Bosch Japan, JATCO
Nissan moved its global headquarters to Minato Mirai in 2009, and the wider Kanagawa corridor remains one of Japan's densest automotive engineering clusters.
Corporate R&D
Shiseido Global Innovation Center, Kyocera, Murata, LG Japan Lab, Apple
Minato Mirai's second phase has been deliberately built out as a research campus district, and several multinationals now run their principal Japanese R&D operations there rather than in Tokyo.
Port, logistics & trade
Port of Yokohama, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Kisen, Nippon Yusen
Yokohama opened to foreign trade in 1859 under the Harris treaty — a fishing village chosen over Kanagawa-juku — and remains one of Japan's largest ports, with the shipbuilding heritage visible in the docks that Minato Mirai was built on.
Food, drink & consumer
Kirin, Ajinomoto, Nissin Cup Noodles Museum, Shiseido
Kirin's brewery in Namamugi is one of Japan's oldest, and Yokohama's port history means several of Japan's first imported foods — beer, ice cream, bread — arrived and were first made here.
Biotech & life sciences
RIKEN Yokohama, Yokohama City University, Chugai Pharmaceutical, Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science
The Tsurumi RIKEN campus and Yokohama City University's medical school anchor a life sciences cluster that Kanagawa Prefecture has backed with a dedicated life-innovation zone.
Higher education
Yokohama National University, Yokohama City University, Keio Science & Technology, Kanagawa University
Keio's science and technology faculty sits in Kōhoku ward, and the concentration of engineering graduates is a large part of why the automotive and R&D employers are here.
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