Japan plans to merge lithium-ion battery businesses

Japanese bureaucrats instructing private corporations how to run their business. What could possibly go wrong?

I suppose Washington could take a similar move with its aircraft industry, to "safeguard the technical edge" of US manufacturers and suppliers. That would mean, of course, shutting out all the Japanese and other foreign companies, which is what the protectionist scheme above is all about.

Way to keep the foreigners at bay, Japan!

The US is welcome to do that. Honda and Mitsubishi will laugh their asses off.

Speaking of Lithium batteries. I find it funny that Japan does not allow you to mail a battery overseas saying that it is harmful and can cause an explosion on a plane while every passenger on a plane carries at least one lithium battery if not 2 or 3. The regulations in Japan are all designed to keep everything with the large corporations and crush the competition. The question is how many lithium batteries are actually made in Japan. They may have an edge so to speak but are they manufactured in Japan or in China? The protectionism is all for the major corporations not for the Japanese people.

Kent, the thinking is that, as a flying passenger, you or others will be able to keep an eye (or a nose) on a cellphone or laptop battery and deal with it sensibly if anything goes wrong. As I understand it, anything sent by air would be unsupervised and therefore potentially more dangerous.

When all countries are not playing the game with same rules, it is a must for a government to consider any action that can safeguard its industry and jobs. The limits of liberalism is reached when social stability is at risk. I am conscious this thinking might be considered a kind of iconoclast...

"The move is aimed at safeguarding the technological edge Japanese firms have developed in the face of increasingly intense competition from South Korean firms, it said."

Not an unsmart move. Industrial espionage is a crippling disease, and in this ever-increasing competitive global economy, companies and economies need to protect technologies born of precious R&D funds. I'm not too surprised about this.

The question is how many lithium batteries are actually made in Japan.

That, actually, is the main question. The company who holds the contract for the batteries has several offices and plants all over China:

http://www.gsyuasa-lp.com/aviation-lithium-ion-markets

http://www.gs-yuasa.com/us/corporate/group.html

hello i am tom... lithium-ion battery businesses is much interesting....its having very good effect to the japaneese economy...its an smart move for japaneese government..:)