Corpus is built almost entirely on one document: the annual securities report (yukashoken hokokusho). It is filed with the Financial Services Agency, it is free to read, and it discloses things about employees that most countries' filings do not.
This page explains the rules. For the numbers — 3,780 companies, from these filings — see the benchmark page.
Listed companies and certain other issuers must file within three months of the fiscal year end. Most Japanese fiscal years end on 31 March, so the bulk of filings land in June. Filings go to EDINET, the FSA's public system, and are free to download.
Errors are corrected by filing an amendment report rather than by editing the original, so the correction history is itself public — Corpus has looked at what a high correction count predicts.
A dedicated section carries, per company: number of employees, average age, average years of service, and average annual salary. Company-level average pay is not routinely disclosed in most markets; in Japan it has been standard for decades, which is what makes cross-company comparison possible at all.
For fiscal years ending on or after 31 March 2023, filings also carry the share of women in management, the gender pay gap and male parental leave uptake, where the employer is subject to the corresponding disclosure duty.
Aggregate director compensation is disclosed by category, and individually for anyone receiving ¥100 million or more in the year. Below that threshold, individual amounts are not published.
Several things people expect are absent: pay by job or grade, pay by gender in yen, headcount by location, and any comparable retirement-payout line. Where a figure cannot be built honestly from the filing, Corpus says so on the page rather than estimating it.
Where management judges there to be material doubt about the company's ability to continue, the filing carries a going concern note. It is the company's own statement, not a prediction of failure, and Corpus tracks what happened to companies after one appeared.
Bonuses ・ Retirement lump sums ・ Graduate hiring ・ Paid leave ・ Overtime ・ Parental leave ・ Women in management ・ Reading salary figures ・ Contracts and dismissal ・ Annual securities reports ・ all guides.
Sources: Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (Act No. 25 of 1948) / Cabinet Office Ordinance on Disclosure of Corporate Affairs. Summarised by Corpus; not provided or endorsed by any government agency. The figures behind the linked benchmark pages come from Japanese government statistics and company disclosure — see all benchmarks.