There was a news on FT the other day that Sony's ex-chairman stated that Japan's electronics industry must consolidate if it is to remain competitive and that it is the cluster of Kyoto-based technology companies, including Nintendo, that makes him confident in the future of Japan's electronics industry.

Quite a comment, isn't it?

One could read into some drastic moves from Sony or other interesting things, but I think it was closer to just a careless remark. I can see how he might say these things casually in Japanese.

I guess he was expressing his view on the industry landscape and separately praised Wii for its very "Japanese style" innovation as a private person / critic / heavyweight /populist. And that sort of mixed standpoint is well allowed in Japanese context especially for someone of his status. I doubt this is the case in the US. Somebody might have sued him already for stock price spike.

Nothing is really wrong with that in and of itself, but these kinds of incidents make me think that Japanese are somewhat politically-challenged. On the other hand, it is sometimes tiring in the states as it is overly political in many aspects of daily life. There should be a middle ground somewhere....

Yuki