20 Major Manufacturers, Technology Companies, and IT Firms Headquartered or Based in Kyoto (2026)

Last verified: August 5, 2026

This article is based on published primary sources such as each company's official website, securities reports, and public statistics. Locations, business activities, employee numbers, and hiring status may change. Please check each company's official page for the latest information before applying.

The listing order does not indicate ranking. We do not publish information we cannot verify.

Key points from this article (30-second read)

- It lists 20 major IT and web-related companies in Kyoto Prefecture by industry category, with location, employee numbers, business field, and official URL.

- It uses six categories: major electronics and components; games and entertainment; apparel; web and internet; SaaS and AI startups; and research institutions or hubs.

- Companies include Nintendo, Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, OMRON, ROHM, Shimadzu, SCREEN Holdings, Hatena, LY Corporation, Money Forward, HACARUS, Baseconnect, and others.

- It also sets out four criteria for choosing an employer when changing jobs or starting a career—business field, working style, salary range, and growth stage—alongside salary levels in Kyoto.

- Written from the on-the-ground perspective of the Kyoto IT engineer community Miyako de IT (7 years, 153 events, 623 members).

The phrase “IT companies in Kyoto” mixes together headquarters in Kyoto, branch offices, research bases, factories, and recruitment locations. This article treats those types of office separately.

How we classify types of offices

• Headquarters: the registered head office, which also holds the main decision-making functions
• Major office: a location other than the headquarters that carries a core business function
• Research and development base: a location whose main function is research and development
• Factory: a location whose main function is manufacturing
• Sales office: a location whose main function is sales
• Registration confirmed only: a location whose operation cannot be confirmed beyond its registration record
• Confirmed from recruitment information: a location confirmed only from the work locations stated on a recruitment page

We do not include companies with only a registered address, or former offices, in order to make the count look larger. The list in this article is limited to companies with a headquarters or a major development base in Kyoto Prefecture.

The items we state for each company

• Company name
• Type of Kyoto office
• Location
• Main business
• Recruitment page
• Official URL
• Date last verified

The table lists the company name, location, main business, approximate scale, and official URL. The type of office appears in each company's entry and in the surrounding text, and recruitment-page URLs are collected in The Kyoto Engineer Career-Change Guide.

Listing criteria

• An official site or an official company-information page exists
• An update date or the company's recent business status can be confirmed
• The location, business activities, and scale can be confirmed from primary sources
• We do not rely on reposts from other sites alone
• We check for closure, relocation, and consolidation
• We state whether listings can be paid for; this article has no paid listing slots
• When we list ourselves or a related organization, we state the role and the relationship

About listing our own company: Netsujo Inc. (Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto), which appears in the list below, is the company that operates Miyako de IT, the publisher of this article. Miyako de IT has been run as an official business of Netsujo Inc. since 2025. We do not rank it against other companies and describe it under the same items as everyone else.

*The companies and offices listed here are reviewed periodically. Employee figures mix consolidated and parent-company measures, are approximate, and do not indicate a ranking.*

Introduction: an overview of Kyoto's IT and web companies

The best-known large companies headquartered in Kyoto are global manufacturers whose products and businesses hold high global market share: Nintendo, Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, OMRON, ROHM, Shimadzu, and SCREEN Holdings. In IT and web, Hatena, Money Forward's Kansai development base, and LY Corporation's Kyoto development office are well known; among AI and SaaS startups, HACARUS and Baseconnect are known as Kyoto-founded companies. Kyoto's IT and technology companies are easier to grasp through six categories: major electronics and components; games and entertainment; apparel; web and internet; SaaS and AI startups; and research institutions or hubs. This article introduces 20 companies with a headquarters or a major development base in Kyoto Prefecture, with a list by industry category and an explanation of each sector. For the wider picture of IT engineering in Kyoto—salaries, career changes, communities, and working styles as well as companies—see The Complete Guide to IT Engineers in Kyoto.

The Kyoto IT engineer community Miyako de IT has held 153 events over 7 years. It has 623 registered connpass members, which is a registration count and not a count of actual attendees or of people connected with companies. Drawing on what we have seen while running those events, this article organizes the criteria for choosing an employer on a factual basis.

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Chapter 1: characteristics of Kyoto's IT and web companies

In short: Kyoto's IT sector is characterized by a cluster of niche-leading companies with top global market share, coexisting with web, SaaS, and AI startups. Kyoto Prefecture has far fewer technology companies per resident than Tokyo, but Kyoto-founded global companies such as Nintendo, Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, and ROHM each lead a global market in a particular field, which gives people who want a research-and-development or global product career based in Kyoto a substantial range of options.

A cluster of games and entertainment

Kyoto is one of the birthplaces of the game industry. Nintendo has maintained its headquarters in Minami Ward, Kyoto City, since its founding in 1889, and the contract game developer TOSE is headquartered in Oyamazaki, Kyoto Prefecture. For IT engineers aiming at the game industry, Kyoto is one of the main bases alongside Tokyo and Osaka.

A cluster of AI and Web3 startups

In recent years, AI, SaaS, and Web3 startups have gathered around innovation hubs including Kyoto Research Park (KRP), operated by Kyoto Research Park Corp., along with KOIN and QUESTION. HACARUS (sparse-modeling AI) and Baseconnect (company-data SaaS) are examples. Kyoto Prefecture also runs communities for the metaverse and Web3, so investment in new fields is proceeding at the local-government level as well.

How to read working conditions and wage levels

When you compare wage levels with another region, you have to compare data from the same survey, the same occupational classification, and the same year. Because the definition and scope of an occupation differ by survey, this article does not state a fixed figure for the gap with Tokyo. For levels in Kyoto Prefecture, see the public and job-listing statistics in the next section and The Guide to IT Engineer Salaries in Kyoto.

On the living side, Kyoto University, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Doshisha University, and other universities are concentrated in and around the city, making it easy to find points of contact for academia–industry collaboration and graduate recruitment.

Salary levels in public statistics and job-listing statistics

When you look at salaries, separating “public statistics” from “job-listing statistics,” which survey different populations, brings you closer to reality. Because the two differ in occupational definition and method of calculation, the figures below are offered as reference points rather than assertions.

In public statistics, the “software creators” category for Kyoto Prefecture—roughly systems engineers and programmers—in Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare 2024 Basic Survey on Wage Structure (by prefecture) shows monthly cash earnings of ¥418,500 and annual bonuses of ¥1,120,800, implying approximately ¥6.14 million a year (sample of 5,470 people, average age 38.8). The “systems consultants and designers” category, covering upstream work, implies approximately ¥7.53 million. Note that “software creators” is an occupational classification and does not map exactly onto the term “IT engineer” used in this article.

In job-listing statistics, Kyujin Box's salary guide, calculated from advertised jobs as of June 2026, places the average for systems engineers in Kyoto Prefecture at ¥5.23 million, which it calculates as the highest level in Kansai. For reference, its nationwide averages are ¥4.46 million for IT engineers and ¥5.23 million for game programmers. Because job-listing statistics are based on amounts advertised when recruiting, they can differ from what is actually paid.

A fuller explanation of salary levels, and the nine items you need in order to read the figures, are collected in The Guide to IT Engineer Salaries in Kyoto. Because figures from the same source have to be updated in both articles, treat the salary guide as the source of record when updating.

Sources: Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2024 Basic Survey on Wage Structure by prefecture (e-Stat); Kyujin Box salary-guide pages by occupation (Kyujin Box, as of June 2026). The figures are those at the time of the survey and are re-verified periodically.

Career paths

IT companies in Kyoto have a craft culture of refining a technology over decades. Large companies premised on long-term employment, such as Nintendo, Kyocera, and Murata Manufacturing, coexist with the career mobility of web companies such as Hatena and Money Forward, and that range—being able to choose a company that matches your own inclination—is characteristic of Kyoto. The formal corporate names are as given in the table above.

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Chapter 2: 20 major IT and web companies in Kyoto, listed by industry category

The following is a list of 20 IT and web companies with a headquarters or a major development base in Kyoto Prefecture. The numbers are not a ranking; they are an index applied after grouping companies by industry category. Within each category, companies are ordered by year of establishment or by name. Locations, business fields, employee scale, and official URLs were checked against each company's official site, securities reports, and public company information as of May 2026. Employee figures mix consolidated and parent-company measures, so treat them as approximate.

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Kyoto's major companies by scale: an approximate guide to employee numbers

For the questions “which are Kyoto's large and well-known companies?” and “which are the largest by size?”, employee numbers are a useful guide to the overall picture. The list below takes the companies above whose consolidated employee numbers are particularly large—major electronics and components manufacturers—and arranges them by approximate scale (this is not a formal ranking, and it mixes consolidated and parent-company measures; check each company's current securities report).

• Nidec Corporation, formerly Nihon Densan — consolidated: about 104,000 (precision motors and automotive)
• Kyocera Corporation — consolidated: about 79,000 (electronic components and communications equipment)
• Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. — consolidated: about 78,000 (electronic components)
• Nintendo Co., Ltd. — consolidated: about 8,600 (games)
• SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd. — consolidated: about 6,200 (semiconductor manufacturing equipment)
• OMRON Corporation — parent company: about 5,400 (sensing and factory automation)
• Nissha Co., Ltd. — consolidated: about 4,500 (decorative films and touch sensors)
• ROHM Co., Ltd. — parent company: about 4,400 (semiconductors and electronic components)

That global electronics and components manufacturers such as Nintendo, Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, OMRON, and ROHM are headquartered in Kyoto is a defining feature of the city's IT and technology sector. At the same time, smaller but technically strong web, SaaS, and AI companies—Hatena, HACARUS, and Baseconnect among them—are also clustered here, so the choice divides between the stability of a large company and the autonomy of a startup. Each company's business field is as given in the table above.

How major manufacturers and web companies differ in Kyoto, in work and career terms

For people who want to work at a large Kyoto company or manufacturer, or who want to know how that differs from a web company, here is a factual comparison of the two cultures.

Major electronics and electronic components manufacturers—Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, OMRON, ROHM, Shimadzu, and SCREEN Holdings among them—are largely niche-leading companies that lead a global market in their own field. A culture of accumulating technology over decades on the premise of long-term employment is well established, and their recruitment pages at times list roles for IT people in research, embedded engineering, firmware, and internal DX and IT departments. In research, development, and manufacturing roles, the proportion of time spent on site tends to be higher because of equipment and prototyping. Web, SaaS, and AI startups—Hatena, Money Forward's Kansai development base, LY Corporation's Kyoto development office, and Baseconnect among them—more often adopt remote or hybrid work, and career mobility is higher. They develop with their own modern stacks, which may include TypeScript, Ruby on Rails, Go, Scala, and React.

Neither is better than the other. The axis for choosing a company in Kyoto is whether you want to settle in and go deep technically, or to prioritize autonomy and speed. If you are starting your studies and aiming at a Kyoto company, see also How to Learn Programming in Kyoto, which sets out how to choose among self-study, schools, and study groups.

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Chapter 3: characteristics by sector, and options by professional interest

In short: Kyoto offers concrete company options for each of six interests—games, web, research and development, startups, major electronics, and apparel combined with IT. This chapter organizes, on a factual basis, which companies correspond to which role or interest. It is not an evaluation of which company is better; use it as a map for finding the companies that match your own inclination.

If you want to work in games

The main companies where you can gain game-development experience in Kyoto are Nintendo (Minami Ward, Kyoto; consolidated about 8,600) and TOSE (Oyamazaki; consolidated about 700). Nintendo develops hardware and software end to end around its own intellectual property, while TOSE specializes in contract game development and reports experience across more than 2,300 titles for major domestic publishers. The choice reflects whether you want to take your own IP to a global market or gain cross-genre experience through contract work.

If you want to work in web and internet services

The main companies involved in web-service development in Kyoto are Hatena (Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto; parent company about 200), LY Corporation's Kyoto development office (Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto; about 100), and Money Forward's Kansai development base (Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto; about 100). Hatena is an independent company that has run its own web services, including blogs and bookmarking, for many years; LY Corporation's Kyoto office is a development base for LINE Pay, Clova, and related services; and Money Forward's is the Kansai development base for its cloud-accounting SaaS. Their technology choices differ by company and may include Perl, Scala, TypeScript, Ruby on Rails, Go, and React.

If you want to work in research and development

Companies that recruit continuously for research and development include OMRON (sensing, AI, and robotics), Murata Manufacturing (basic research and materials development for electronic components), Shimadzu (analytical and medical instruments, and the employer of a Nobel laureate in chemistry), Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) (a telecommunications research institute working on neuroscience, brain–machine interfaces, and natural-language processing), and SCREEN Holdings (semiconductor manufacturing equipment). Master's and doctoral recruitment and career paths through academia–industry projects are common in these fields.

If you want a startup or small, focused team

Representative Kyoto-founded startups include HACARUS (sparse-modeling AI; Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto; about 50), Baseconnect (the Musubu company-information database SaaS; Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto; about 30), and Netsujo (Web3 and AI contract development; Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto). Kyoto Research Park (KRP), operated by Kyoto Research Park Corp., houses roughly 500 organizations and 6,400 people and is a place where startups in AI, biotechnology, healthcare, mobility, and other fields are clustered.

If you want major electronics and electronic components

Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, OMRON, ROHM, Shimadzu, SCREEN Holdings, Nissha, and Nichicon are all global companies headquartered in Kyoto. Openings for IT people—research roles, embedded engineering, firmware, and internal DX and IT departments—are available throughout the year.

If you want apparel combined with IT

Wacoal (Minami Ward, Kyoto; consolidated about 20,000, with Wacoal Holdings as the holding company) is an apparel company that nonetheless recruits internal IT and DX talent on a continuing basis for work such as using 3D measurement data, running its e-commerce site, and digitalizing stores. It is an option for people interested in apparel combined with technology.

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Chapter 4: what to consider when choosing an IT or web company in Kyoto

In short: choosing a company in Kyoto becomes easier when you compare on four axes—business field, working style, salary range, and growth stage. The table sets out what to check on each axis, and the sections that follow cover considerations particular to Kyoto: location, culture, academia–industry collaboration, and communities.

Four criteria for choosing an employer: a comparison table

Of the four, business field and growth stage can be narrowed down using the table and the sector notes in this article. Working style and salary range vary considerably by opening, so always check the current job description on each company's recruitment page before applying.

Working style: remote and hybrid arrangements

Working styles at Kyoto IT companies vary by sector. Remote and hybrid arrangements are increasingly common at web, SaaS, and startup companies, and some development bases hire nationwide on a fully remote basis. In research and development, electronic components, and manufacturing, on the other hand, the proportion of time spent on site is higher because of equipment and prototyping. Conditions differ by opening, so we recommend checking the remote policy, office frequency, and work location on each company's recruitment page before applying.

Kyoto is a compact city, so commuting is light and it is easier to keep some room in your life even in a role that assumes office attendance. If you work mainly remotely, co-working sessions and networking events can supply in-person contact and make isolation less likely; if this is new to you, For First-Time Participants describes the atmosphere.

Office locations and commuting

IT companies within Kyoto City are concentrated around Shijo-Karasuma, Kawaramachi, Kyoto Station, Kyoto Research Park in Shimogyo Ward, Fushimi Ward, and Minami Ward. Within the city, a bicycle commute is often possible, and the long commutes common in Tokyo rarely occur. For Murata Manufacturing in Nagaokakyo or TOSE in Oyamazaki, the JR Kyoto Line and the Hankyu Kyoto Line are the main routes.

Culture particular to Kyoto

Kyoto corporate culture is often characterized by pursuing authenticity, preferring long-term value to short-term profit, and keeping information confidential. Nintendo, Kyocera, and Murata Manufacturing are typical of this culture, with personnel systems premised on long tenure by new graduates and early-career hires. Hatena, Money Forward, and Baseconnect, by contrast, have a more fluid web-company culture, and the coexistence of both is characteristic of Kyoto.

Active academia–industry collaboration

The concentration of technical universities—Kyoto University, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Doshisha University, and Ritsumeikan University, whose College of Information Science and Engineering moved to the Osaka Ibaraki campus in April 2024—is high even by international standards. Opportunities for academia–industry projects, joint research, and internships are plentiful, making it easier for early-career researchers to plan a career. Miyako de IT also puts this into practice as collaboration with universities and educational institutions.

The presence of communities

Kyoto has regular co-working sessions, study groups, and technical conferences run by communities including Miyako de IT. Miyako de IT was founded in 2019 and has held 153 events over 7 years, gathering more than 623 members. Being able to meet IT engineers at other companies through a community—people you would rarely encounter through your employer alone—is another advantage of Kyoto.

Options besides permanent employment: freelancing

In Kyoto you are not limited to permanent employment; working as a freelance IT engineer is also an option. Kyoto City has coworking spaces and IT engineer communities, and Miyako de IT events are attended by a mix of employees, freelancers, and students. The Advantages of Working as a Freelance IT Engineer in Kyoto covers the city from a freelancer's point of view.

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Frequently asked questions about well-known companies headquartered in Kyoto

Q. Which well-known large companies are headquartered in Kyoto?

The best-known large companies headquartered in Kyoto are global manufacturers such as Nintendo (games), Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, OMRON, ROHM, Shimadzu, and SCREEN Holdings. By employee scale, Nidec (consolidated about 104,000), Kyocera (consolidated about 79,000), and Murata Manufacturing (consolidated about 78,000) are particularly large, and each leads a global market in its own field. Employee figures mix consolidated and parent-company measures, are approximate, and are not a formal ranking; check each company's current securities report.

Q. Which IT and web companies have a headquarters or development base in Kyoto?

In web and internet services, Hatena (Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto), LY Corporation's Kyoto development office (Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto), and Money Forward's Kansai development base (Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto) apply. Among AI and SaaS startups, HACARUS (sparse-modeling AI; Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto), Baseconnect (the Musubu company-information database SaaS; Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto), and Netsujo (Web3 and AI contract development; Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto) are known as Kyoto-founded companies. Each company's location, business field, employee scale, and official URL are collected in the table of 20 major IT and web companies above.

Q. Which game companies and manufacturers are in Kyoto?

In games and entertainment, Nintendo (Minami Ward, Kyoto) and the contract game developer TOSE (Oyamazaki, Kyoto Prefecture) are headquartered in Kyoto. Among major electronics and components manufacturers, in addition to Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, OMRON, ROHM, Shimadzu, and SCREEN Holdings mentioned above, Nissha and Nichicon are headquartered within Kyoto City.

Q. What do IT engineers at these companies earn?

There is no single figure. As shown in “Salary levels in public statistics and job-listing statistics” above, public statistics (wages actually paid) and job-listing statistics (amounts advertised when recruiting) measure different things. How to check figures by role, and the nine items you need in order to read them, are collected in The Guide to IT Engineer Salaries in Kyoto. For a specific employer, check the expected salary range stated in its job description.

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Chapter 5: conclusion—working at an IT or web company in Kyoto

Kyoto has fewer options in total than Tokyo, but it has a distinctive ecosystem in which niche-leading companies with global market leadership—Nintendo, Kyocera, Murata Manufacturing, Nidec, and ROHM among them—coexist with fast-growing AI, SaaS, and Web3 startups such as HACARUS, Baseconnect, and Netsujo. Taking living costs and rent, the concentration of universities, and the density of communities together, Kyoto is a credible option for an IT engineer. Use the list by industry category and the notes by professional interest in this article as a map for finding the company that suits you. For salary levels in detail, see The Complete Guide to IT Engineer Salaries in Kyoto; for how to go about a career change, The Kyoto IT Engineer Career-Change Guide; and for the overall picture of IT engineering in Kyoto, The Complete Guide to IT Engineers in Kyoto.

About the Miyako de IT community

As a place for people who work, or want to work, at a Kyoto IT company, we run the Kyoto IT engineer community Miyako de IT. It regularly holds co-working sessions, lightning talks, and career conversations at temples and machiya townhouses. To get a feel for how working IT engineers in Kyoto talk and think, join through the event calendar.

What is actually happening inside Kyoto's IT sector—study groups, academia–industry work, and collaboration with public bodies—is covered by The Kyoto IT Scene. This article handles the company list and how to choose among them; that one handles the activity taking place in the region. To read the Kyoto IT-engineer articles together, start from the article index.

Sponsorship for companies

To support the growth of Kyoto's IT industry and the development of its people, Miyako de IT is looking for corporate sponsors. We have a record of working with local government (Kyoto City and Kyoto Prefecture), universities, and communities, and sponsorship can be used for technical branding and recruitment communication from a Kyoto base. See the sponsorship information for details.

Update history

• August 5, 2026: added the listing criteria; added the date of the last check against official primary sources; stated how types of office are classified and which items are listed; removed the statement giving a fixed figure for the wage gap with Tokyo; stated the relationship with the operating company, Netsujo Inc.; fixed the broken destination of the sponsorship link (/sponsor-guide to /sponsor)