Lifetime employment is one of the most conspicuous features of contemporary large Japanese corporations. The employment practices of merchant houses in the Edo period are sometimes proposed as one source of such lifetime commitment. Little attention has been paid, however, to the connection between long-term employment in the Edo period and that in the twentieth century. This paper aims to look at how Edo employment practices adapted to the twentieth-century environment within a new context of modern educational institutions and the need for professional managers.