OBAYASHI CORP company profile

Overview

Obayashi Corporation is a Japan-based construction and engineering company whose core businesses are building construction and civil engineering. Its work spans buildings such as offices, housing, commercial facilities, factories, hospitals and schools, and infrastructure including tunnels, bridges, dams, railways and expressways. The company also operates in overseas construction, engineering, real-estate development and green energy.[1]

The company states its philosophy as “A Leading Sustainability Company,” grounded in honest craftsmanship and technology, environmental consideration and contributing solutions to society.[6] For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, consolidated net sales were ¥2,586.2 billion.[7] As of that date, the group had 18,031 employees and 156 group companies, with operations in 17 countries and regions; Obayashi Corporation itself had 9,472 employees.[8] [7]

Products & services

Obayashi’s FY2025 net sales were ¥2,586.2 billion. Construction accounted for ¥2,409.3 billion (93.2%), comprising building construction at ¥1,646.7 billion (63.7%) and civil engineering at ¥762.6 billion (29.5%); real estate and other businesses accounted for ¥176.8 billion (6.8%). These shares are calculated from the reported segment figures. The figures describe business segments, not sales of individual products.[9]

Its construction technologies include CleanCrete™, a concrete that replaces most cement with industrial by-products and is reported to reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 80% versus ordinary concrete; Slim-Crete™, a room-temperature-cured fiber-reinforced mortar/concrete with reported compressive strength of 180 N/mm² and tensile strength of at least 8.8 N/mm²; and GeoDrop™, an excavator-bucket attachment intended to reduce soil adhesion, bucket-shaking operations, and equipment operating time. Obayashi also offers the URUP method for constructing underpasses by tunneling from ground level and returning to the surface, and DAYFREE™ for replacing expressway deck slabs while limiting lane closures to nighttime.[10]

Service offerings include engineering and construction for semiconductor and pharmaceutical production facilities, renewable-energy facilities, building ICT, and soil and water pollution countermeasures. Pharmaceutical-facility services extend across engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and validation, and maintenance. Other offerings include real-estate development and property operations, renewable-energy generation and green-hydrogen initiatives, and infrastructure maintenance, upgrades, and repairs.[4] [9]

Geographic presence

Obayashi’s FY2025 consolidated net sales were ¥2,586,258 million: Japan accounted for ¥1,736,397 million (67.1%) and overseas markets ¥849,861 million (32.9%). Overseas sales comprised North America ¥564,790 million (21.8% of total), Asia ¥271,119 million (10.5%), and Others ¥13,951 million (0.6%).[17] FY2025 ended March 31, 2026; the company announced its Corporate Report 2026 on October 1, 2026.[18]

The parent company’s FY2025 net sales were predominantly domestic: Japan accounted for 97.3% and overseas markets 2.7%. Within Japan, Kanto represented 35.0% of parent-company sales, Kansai 30.4%, and other Japan 31.9%; parent-company overseas sales were 1.5% North America, 0.5% Asia, and 0.7% Others.[19]

The company lists a Tokyo head office and Japanese branches including Sapporo, Sendai, Saitama, Yokohama, Niigata, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, Takamatsu, and Fukuoka, along with regional headquarters in Singapore and Foster City, California.[20] Its company profile reports 18,031 group employees and operations in 17 countries and regions as of March 31, 2026; it does not provide a regional employee breakdown.[8] [17]

Business segments

For FY2025 (year ended March 31, 2026), Obayashi reported sales across five business lines: Domestic Building, ¥1,138.7 billion (about 44.0% of consolidated net sales); Overseas Building, ¥507.9 billion (19.6%); Domestic Civil, ¥426.6 billion (16.5%); Overseas Civil, ¥336.0 billion (13.0%); and Real Estate Business and Other, ¥176.8 billion (6.8%). The percentages are approximate calculations using consolidated net sales of ¥2,586.2 billion and the reported, rounded figures. These are business-line figures, so they should not be confused with the company’s accounting reportable-segment presentation.[9][21]

The four building and civil lines comprise the Construction Business. Building construction includes offices, housing, commercial and industrial facilities, hospitals, and schools; civil engineering covers infrastructure such as tunnels, bridges, dams, railways, and expressways. Overseas construction includes building and civil projects in Southeast Asia, North America, and Oceania. Real estate development includes developing and holding urban properties for lease.[9]

Obayashi also describes its activities through five strategic domains: Domestic Construction, Overseas Construction, Real Estate Development, Green Energy, and New Business Initiatives. This strategic framework differs from the five-line sales breakdown above; the sales presentation combines Real Estate Business and Other and does not give separate revenue shares for all five strategic domains.[23][24] [9]

Company history

Obayashi Corporation was founded in Osaka in 1892 by Yoshigoro Obayashi as a civil-engineering and building contractor. It adopted the Obayashi Corporation name in 1904. Early landmark projects included Tokyo Central Station, completed in 1914; Hanshin Koshien Stadium, completed in 1924; and reconstruction of Osaka Castle’s Main Tower, completed in 1931.[25][26]

After undertaking postwar reparations work in Southeast Asia, Obayashi began overseas construction projects in 1962. It opened a representative office in Bangkok in 1964 and registered a Hawaiian branch in 1966. Later milestones included the establishment of Thai Obayashi in 1974 and the completion of major projects such as Kansai International Airport in 1994 and the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line in 1997.[27][28]

Obayashi expanded in North America through acquisitions that included U.S. contractor Webcor in 2007 and Canadian contractor Kenaidan in 2011. In 2023, it announced the acquisition of U.S. water-treatment contractor MWH US.[28] [25]

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