Word: hitachis
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...good news in Japan these days. Last month Nissan announced a sweeping restructuring with thousands of job cuts, and last week it reported a $3 billion loss, one of the biggest in history. The overwhelming reaction among Japan watchers was...jubilation. These days each time Mitsubishi, NEC or Hitachi announces a plant closing, the Tokyo stock market surges higher. Economists now cheer as banks that once could have bought small countries desperately merge or plead for a white knight (even foreigners are welcome) to save them from insolvency. Behind this seemingly misplaced optimism in Japan's ailing economy, however...
There's a lot more wrong with Japan's economy than its banks: Toshiba and Hitachi, two of the electronic giants that drove the country's postwar industrial boom, on Monday posted massive losses. Toshiba's $53.6 million pretax loss in the first half of fiscal '98 compared with a $212 million profit for the same period last year; Hitachi lost $1.04 billion compared with a $204 million profit in the equivalent period last year. "These companies will bleed as long as demand at home and in Asia remains weak," says TIME senior business reporter Bernard Baumohl. And therein lies...
...even banking reform can ease the pain at this point: "Even if Japan succeeds in revitalizing its banking system, it would take at least three years for the Japanese economy to restore the growth levels of the 1980s," says Baumohl. So when that Hitachi sound system gets cheaper at your local store, it's playing a depression tune...
...Japan's politicians fiddle with banking reform, the country's economic rot is striking deep into the flagship industries of steel and electronics. Hitachi has announced its first annual loss since the end of the Second World War -- about three quarters of a billion dolllars -- and it's cutting 4,000 jobs. Did somebody say "lifetime employment"? Meanwhile, steelmaker Toa, sagging under some $2 billion in debt, is reported to be pursuing a liquidation program. It would be the largest Japanese manufacturer ever to fail...
Taka Gondo, a representative from Hitachi Telecom, said that Japanese companies are still very focused on internationalizing their employees. He referred to Sakamoto Ryoma, a ronin (masterless samurai) hero who helped unify Japan and is idealized as a patriot...