Are Japan's keiretsu, the shadowy business groups that have long bound banks, trading houses and industrial firms into loosely knit conglomerates, about to unravel? A recent spate of financial mergers had suggested their imminent collapse, as the banks that played a central role within them as suppliers of cheap capital merged with house banks from rival keiretsu. But other recent deals, including a merger between Sumitomo Chemical and Mitsui Chemical announced on November 17th, have led some to believe that tie-ups between industrial firms could mean that the keiretsu simply re-emerge as bigger, more complicated entities.
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