Foreigners buying Japan

[kamome]

That article focuses on American foreign capital buying up Japanese assets, but America is not the only foreign player. British companies are doing a huge amount of business in Japan, too. One big one that comes to mind is the Vodafone acquisition of Japan Telecomm, which owns J-Phone. Now all the signs in the trains say "J-Phone/Vodafone" on them.

Also, I have to say that the so-called "American-style capitalism" complained of by conservative Japanese politicians is the only thing that will save the Japanese economy. Just look at Nissan: that guy from Renault (I can't remember the spelling of his name), who is AMerican-educated, turned that company around big time. Of course, it meant firing alot of people and basically disrupting the cozy relationships Nissan had with its parts suppliers, but now Nissan is posting big profits. So if you're a macro-econ sort of guy, it looks like Western capitalism is the key to getting Japan back on its feet.