THE SUN ALSO SETS:

A variety of factors are a drag on the growth of Japanese companies compared with international rivals. These include a slumping domestic economy, slow progress on deregulation, failure to seize opportunities in online business, conservative mindsets among executives, and a lack of talent in cross-border business -- something due partly to a lack of personnel with foreign-language skills.

One factor noted by many, including Teikyo University economics professor Junichi Shukuwa, is a reluctance to rejuvenate themselves.

If there are no consolidations within an industry, the result is many companies scrambling in a crowded market, hurting profitability for all involved and impeding their ability to make new investments. Companies falling behind the times end up wasting the economy's available capital and human resources, stifling the growth of new industries. These factors are seen hindering innovation and growth for the entire Japanese economy.

One gets a sense of this looking at the data. Japan's listed companies tend to have a much longer life expectancy than those in other countries before they fall to the wayside to be delisted and replaced in the stock market by others. The average time for companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to be replaced is estimated at 98 years, compared with 15 for the New York Stock Exchange and nine for the London Stock Exchange.

While each of the past few years saw nearly 100 new listings in Japan, relatively few of the nation's companies delist because of bankruptcy or realignment. In the 10 years to 2017, 77 Japanese companies went belly up, according to Teikoku Databank. The U.S. had 354 companies file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over that period even when only counting those with assets totaling $100 million or more.

Japanese companies have also been more hesitant to consolidate than international peers. The country's top 100 by market cap have averaged 182 mergers or acquisitions a year since 2008, according to research firm Refinitiv. This pales beside the 341 annual cases among European companies and 225 at American ones.

"Many Japanese managers aim not to grow, but to simply sustain their companies," Masatoshi Kikuchi of Mizuho Securities said. 

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