With the possible exception of France, no major industrialised country has been slower than Japan in privatising its industries.
But now the process is finally under way, there is a new question. Which banks will benefit from this wholesale restructuring of some of Japan's key industries?
Only one thing is entirely clear: the companies involved face ti difficult period of adjusting their funding methods as they are shoved out of the government nest.
At the end of the Second World War, Japanese industries 'could hardly lift a finger without consulting the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. MITI ruled with an iron rod, deciding which industries would be aided, protected or de-emphasised. This continued through the 1970s.
Strategic industries such as transportation and monopolies such as tobacco were staterun or supported. Their bottom lines were largely ignored for th(& greater good of helping to improve the nation's infrastructure so private industry could more quickly boost its own growth.
These public entities were to become deficit-ridden and overmanned in the ensuing years but were tolerated owing to rising tax revenues generated by strong economic growth and a relatively small go'Kernment budget deficit.