It seemed like an extraordinary display of patriotism and unity: Japan¡¯s biggest companies would come together to save their own, whether ailing carmaker Nissan or besieged convenience store giant Seven & I Holdings.
Roughly six months later, ambitious plans to merge Nissan with Honda and take the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores private have both fallen apart, leaving them grasping for solutions and potentially even more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.
The failure to find a fix that would keep two of the country¡¯s most famous brands under Japanese control marks an unprecedented opening in its corporate landscape, and shows how hastily conceived rescue plans can succumb to market forces.
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