I'm starting to think there is something inherent in Japanese business/political culture that makes changing things very difficult.

The response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster and all the problems they had with that and seeing many Japanese companies have such problems makes me wonder.

Alt Removed, Carl

So if I get the gist of the article the author is upset because the Japanese government has rules to interfere with large scale investing just to activate a "corporate raider" like strategy of 1980's?  

Let's say they did employ the corporate raider strategy of the 80's how would it work in today's world with a Japanese company like Sony who has tried to intertwine some of their divisions and who is a large scale employer.   

Also how would it effect the longer term Sony investor?  Would they be sacrificing the long term viability of the "Sony company" for short term gains?  Would there be a future for Sony afterwards and what would it look like?  

Without answers to these questions I think they have some reason to be wary of this kind of takeover strategy.

Yeah Japanese companies has to follow the USA's lead mass redundancy's of their own countries workers and more outsourcing!

Also selling off all companies piece by piece to foreigner's.

Remember profit to shareholders today and the company gone in a decade.

So at what point are Sony beyond the help of the Japanese government?

So using public funds to sustain private firms is the way to continue this decade long practice?

Sony for exampe has consistently failed to post profit for a while. Without Abe's nationalist views, Sony and many giants in Japan would've been belly up with their pride that has no place in corporate sphere.

General Motors, Chrysler and the US banking industry says high.

That was a huge mistake that won't happen again and most of them have paid their "allowances".

US is just as much in the shit as Japan.. the damn financial crisis took them all

Like was said above, not so much.  They all took a hit, and the US caused the rest of the world to go down, but while families and most individuals have not recovered, the US big companies did.  Remember AIG who ended up needing 180+ billion $ from the US government for their bailout (insurance company that got involved in banking stuff)?  Well they not only paid their loan off with interest, but are worth more now than ever before.  Like double.  So they are making record profits now, and GM, all the banks, etc, that all received bailouts, are all doing great now.  Not that I agree with the bailouts, and AIG isa ctually suing the US government for 20+ billion $ because they had a much higher interest rate (because they were being by far the most sketchy out of all the bailout companies) and they want some of that back.  Greedy sure, but they are still doing very well.

I'm pretty sure the US Government actually made money by the end of it all on all the bailouts due to the interest that was repaid.

Japan though.... they are still propping up their companies.  And keep in mind, not all US banks and companies got a bailout that were in trouble.  Many folded or got bought out and sold to other bigger banks.  Washington Mutual got bought by Wachovia who then got bought by... Wells Fargo I think?  Hard to keep track.  However, we are in a global econom now, like it or not.  Japan should have let companies do this a long time ago but they are driving many into the ground.  South Korea has easily taken them over in innovation.  Even though Sony came up with 4k (which is awesome), no matter which store I go into, they all say, buy a Samsung 4k, because they can beat Sony at their own game. 

People can talk back and forth about who made money, who lost, etc (I remember midway through the PS2 lifecycle there was an article how their gaming division lost $2 billion, so who knows).  But Microsoft with a years profits alone (around $20 bill cash), is more than Sony, the entire company, is worth. ($18 or so billion).  Sony has lost 90% of their value in a decade.  To be honest, they must be doing something wrong, because I don't know how Sony pictures was still losing money at the height of the popularity of Spiderman years back, makes no sense to me.  Or how they lose money on TVs when other companies did just fine.  Music industry is hell, and missed the boat, so I can understand that hurting them, but they should still make WAY more than the artists given then deals and how other companies and private labels have done it. 

They have turrible (C Barkley) management and just don't seem to know what to do at all.  By time I got into the stock market, Sony was already on its way down, so I never invested in them, but I do follow them and it is just sad =/.