Word: japanize
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...symbol of its golden age. For 40 years, the assembly lines at Ichinomiya, located southwest of Tokyo, have churned out products like Trinitron TVs that have helped make the Sony brand synonymous with quality and innovation in the minds of consumers worldwide. (See pictures of the history of Japan's interaction with the world...
...Indeed, quarterly results emanating from Japan Inc. last week sounded like a dirge: Honda lowered its profit forecast for the fourth time this year; Panasonic, the world's largest maker of consumer electronics, is slated to post a loss of at least $1 billion in its current fiscal year, its largest ever; and Toshiba, one of the world's largest producers of memory chips, and computer maker NEC Electronics also forecast big losses...
...Throughout Japan, managers are slashing production and restructuring to try to weather the economic downturn, which economists say could continue for the next two or three years. "Demand has been falling off a cliff since the collapse of Lehman Brothers," says Hiroshi Shiraishi, an economist at BNP Paribas in Tokyo. Shiraishi says exports declined a "massive" 15% in real terms last quarter...
...greater reductions may be needed as the global economic slump deepens. Toyota's plight illustrates the challenges faced by Japan Inc. The company recently achieved its long-standing goal of surpassing GM as the world's top automaker - only to run head-on into a recession far more severe than anyone anticipated. With its global sales down 4% last year, Toyota has already announced a management shakeup as well as plans to temporarily close factories for an additional 11 days over the next two months. The goal is to slash output to less than half the number of vehicles Toyota...
...Looking at Japan Inc. as a whole, BNP Paribas' Shiraishi expects production levels to hit bottom in the second quarter of this year, and says some recovery might be seen in the second half of this year. Shiraishi adds that manufacturers could start growing again around 2012, when a wave of Japan's baby boomers will reach age 65 and begin to spend their nest eggs. "They've been saving a lot to prepare for their retirement," says Shiraishi. "That could be a stabilizing factor for Japan." One catch, he says: they probably won't buy more cars...