会長 vs 社長 ? What’s the difference?

[thechilltrain]

会長 vs 社長 ?

I’ve tried to look it up, but I can’t yet understand the Japanese text explaining how they compare…

[alo]

I would but @Leebo’s replying and would probably give a better answer. lol

[Leebo]

I don’t think it’s legally defined or anything. If we’re talking about the head of a company, it’s more common for a 社長 to be the active leader while a 会長 will be the kind of post-retirement figurehead leader.

Of course, if an organization is a type of 会, then the leader can be a 会長 while active.

[Houndstooth]

My understanding of it is that 社長 specifically refers to a company president/CEO, while 会長 could be the president/head of any group, association, etc. including companies (more specifically, as Leebo said, one that is dubbed a 会 of some kind). For example the student council president at my junior high school is referred to as 会長 by a handful of his fellow classmates, but he is (obviously) by no means a CEO

[Stay_coolXD]

No idea. The are the same me. Even after reading previous replies sorry😕

[Leebo]

「会長」と「社長」の違いとは？「理事長」との違いや英語も解説 | TRANS.Biz (trans-suite.jp)

This has more information, but also talks about retired 社長 becoming 会長, as I was alluding to.

The fact that no one would mistake a school’s 生徒会長 for a 社長 means that aspect isn’t discussed much.

[namazurider]

Yes - this is how it is set up at my company. 会長 is considered “Chairman” and can come and go as he pleases.