Article says machinist industry failed to lobby the same way as US steel. Not that US steel is doing healthy. But at some point it's the govs foresight / job to reign in MBAs via protectionism and industrial policy for strategic sectors. As other's have mentioned, JP has MBAs too. Maybe lesson is JP Gov listened to Zaibatsu/conglomerate lobbying power.

That’s just corporate political shade throwing. Fiscal policy has, for a few generations now, incentivized trade deficits for foreign policy reasons. Overtime this results in offshoring of all industry.

This is as empty as saying trade unions caused it. Does Japan not have MBAs? It's all about comparative advantage.

Apparently Japan's MBAs can manage for longer term. At least in this one industry.

From what I've heard, Japan has very different corporate culture, more focused on loyalty and social stability, than on maximizing profit. They can even keep unprofitable divisions of the company, because they don't want to fire people who work in them.

Would be nice if someone with first-hand knowledge of Japanese corporate world could confirm/deny it.