After all, when he took over then-troubled Adtranz in 1996, he swept away jobs, shut factories and slashed costs. And he has been candid about DaimlerChrysler's ambition to eventually take full control. But that does not mean foreign executives are automatically better. That Japanese management has become increasingly global has nothing to do with the failure or success of Japanese management. Just as Daimler took over America's Chrysler, and Ford owns numerous European marques, Japanese companies are belatedly becoming more closely entwined with world industry.
Foreign takeovers are part of globalization.
Some conservative voices in Japan fret that the nation could lose control over its economy, but they are few. At the same time, the LDP man hopes that Japanese will one day head some U.S. and European companies. Perhaps more shocking to the Japanese than the sight of yet another foreign boss running a leading carmaker was the scandal that precipitated it. The group began in 1870, just as the nation was emerging from feudal isolation, and grew to dominate industries from shipping to banking to brewing. Now, on top of MMC's two decades of car-defect deception, affiliate Mitsubishi Electric has admitted that it had concealed a handful of incidents when its TVs emitted smoke or caught fire.