ABSTRACT
Among all U.S. securities companies, the allure of the Japanese marketplace has always been strongest for Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch's two coequal business organizations—private client (retail) and the corporate and institutional client (wholesale)—have both seen opportunities in the Japanese market and perceived that in Japan, as nowhere else outside the United States, synergies could be achieved through a comprehensive market development approach. Also, Merrill Lynch has seen the Japanese marketplace evolve, deregulate, and globalize in ways that have continuously opened profitable business niches to a firm with advanced techniques and an aggressive, opportunistic management style.
