Ironic to some, incompetent to others. Japan Inc ramped up overseas mergers and acquisitions in 2008, a year $30,000bn was wiped off world stock markets. Japanese companies, which trebled outbound M&A spending to $75bn last year from 2007 levels, according to Thomson Reuters, are thus now licking some pretty sizeable wounds. These include Daiichi Sankyo, the pharmaceuticals group that has written down its stake in India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories by $3.8bn, barely six months after signing the $4.6bn deal.

Japan’s inglorious track record on M&A shows the blame cannot be wholly attributed to ugly stock markets. Bankers point to poor discipline on pricing. The strategic imperative tends to be paramount: with a shrinking population and economy growing an annual 1-2 per cent at best, companies know they have to buy growth overseas. And Japanese boards act for all stakeholders, workers and suppliers as well as shareholders. Maintaining jobs thus ranks alongside generating returns. As a result, synergies tend to be modest. Once acquired, meantime, overseas assets can be tough to manage. Dealing with American workers, say, is a different ball game from managing Japanese ones.