ABSTRACT
For many years, Japanese companies were not considered targets for international mergers and acquisitions (M&A). During the 1970s and 1980s, there were hardly any examples of Japanese companies being taken over by foreign ones. Domestic partners would usually bail out a Japanese company if it was in trouble. However, times have changed. The 1990s, called the ‘lost decade’ as growth rates bobbed up and down around the negligible growth mark, were characterised by a persistent downturn of the economy, sick companies and banks revealing a massive accumulation of bad loans and an increasing number of bankruptcies as well as unemployment. As a consequence, a greater number of potential take-over candidates appeared. The number of M&A cases in Japan has increased over the last few years and so have the number of international M&A with Japanese participation. In this chapter, we focus on those cases in which foreign companies have merged with or acquired a Japanese company (so-called OUT-IN), thereby gaining control over the Japanese counterpart.
