If the 1980s marked high water for Japanese capitalism, the sound ever since has been the slippery rush of an ebbing tide. The effects, of course, have been felt most powerfully in Japan itself. But to the outside world, the most striking symptom of the country's changing fortunes has been the decline in foreign investment by Japan's biggest firms. That may now be changing. Japan's long recession seems to be over at last. Its best-managed companies have done their retrenching. Wage bills have been trimmed. Corporate profits are growing at their fastest rate for 20 years. With cash piling up in the bank, the talk in Tokyo's boardrooms is naturally turning to expansion, and not just in the home market. For the first time in a decade, firms are flocking to dip their toes again in foreign waters (see chart).
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