Returning to Japan recently, having been a regular visitor until eight years ago, I was braced for change. I arrived expecting to find an economy turned upside down by far-reaching upheavals. But I left with a curious sensation of déjà vu.

To be sure, shockwaves have rocked the economic landscape. Industrial companies have slashed costs and re-engineered themselves; the job-for-life salaryman, once the praetorian guard of Japan's labour force, has become an endangered species; crippling bad loans have forced drastic retrenchment and consolidation in banking, and a few in business have discovered the hostile takeover.