Foreign manufacturers and marketers have major positions in nearly all sectors of the Japanese economy. If Japan's ministries have been seeking to protect their high-tech sector, they have not been doing a very good job of it. For the foreign companies, hanging on to their technological edge has been key. Companies like TI used their technology as a weapon to obtain a wholly owned operation in Japan. Not people or money.
Japan has an ample supply of both.
For all of Detroit's loud complaints about how the Japanese economy is closed, Ford has the second largest position in Japan, larger even than the oil majors. These are certainly not the trivial amounts one might expect after all of the political posturing against Japan by Detroit's auto executives. Chrysler sold off its equity position in Mitsubishi Motors and has not rebuilt a major sales position in Japan. Detroit's automakers sought to buy their way into Japan through equity in existing producers, seemingly the easy way. This approach has largely failed.