Business Week: Tech Survival Guide For Japan - Do Or Die
Fumiaki Sato's latest book sounds like a bit of a snooze: It's titled A Scenario for the Realignment of Japan's Electronics Industry. But the Deutsche Bank analyst's 323-page tome has been jumping off shelves since its release last August. It's now in its fourth printing as electronics companies buy it for their employees, and Sony has even asked for an English version. Sato's message is dire. "Japan's electronics makers aren't competitive enough to survive for long," he says...The realignment Sato proposes would merge seven top electronics houses into just two giants. Matsushita, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi would tie up as the world's largest maker of flat-panel plasma tvs, with a combined $190 billion in revenues. Sony, Toshiba, Sanyo, and Sharp would become a $175 billion titan, dominating the planet's production of LCD TVs...Japan's electronics companies "would be better off if they worked together instead of competing," Sato says...more...
