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 as Japan's first treaty port in 1859 and remains one of its largest, 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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