Hoe have companies like sony and mitsubishi helped develop japenese economy?

Question

argh in for tomorrow! please help.//

really love some help!! 10 points x*x

Answer 1

Well, interestingly, both companies have close ties with the Mitsui bank, which financed what is called the "Zaibatsu" which is basically a huge conglomerate of companies with family ties to each other.  In some ways, the close relationships between the Zaibatsu and the banks was a good thing -- the businesses were able to get cheap loans and develop their business rapidly.  

However, this close relationship ended up hurting Japan's banking system because the banks got a little too cozy with their customers and started making bad loans that went unpaid.  The end result was the liquidity crisis of the late 80s and 1990s with Japan's currency.

Answer 2

Not clear they have.

Japan really has two economies: the export economy and the rest.

Companies like Sony and Toshiba, Toyota and Nissan, Canon and Nikon, Nihon Steel and Bridgestone, etc. are all part of the export economy. They've developed inventive research labs and many new products, productive factories, etc. They are in competition with other companies around the world and do very well.  compared with firms from other countries.

Companies not in the export economy are shielded from competition by the Japanese government and so are far less innovative and far less efficient.

It is the money earned around the world by the export economy that subsidizes the other economy and lets it continue protected from competition.

From the Japanese perspective, this has let them resist changing their "uniquely Japanese way of life", but with the world markets becoming more competitive, the profits from the export economy just aren't high enough to support the efficiency of the rest of the economy, and times they are a changing. But no one really knows or agrees how things should change. Japan is going through a period of social angst.

So has the delay that the success of companies like Sony and Mitsubishi allowed helped or hindered?