ARTICLE: "Japan's Companies Gird for Attack: Fearing Takeovers, They Rebuild Walls; Rise of Poison Pills," by Andrew Morse and Sebastian Moffett, Wall Street Journal, 30 April 2008, p. A1.

Maybe Murdoch didn't bank sub-titles after all!

Japan's companies are good targets for takeovers, so the walls go up. Better for Japan to stay Japanese than improve.

This is why Japan remains unimportant and un-influential in global affairs: it can't embrace such roles because it cannot embrace the world. Compare this to a China that lets outside multinationals control two-thirds of its exports.