Japan’s newly defined restrictions on foreign investment, which were laid out last week and designate companies according to their importance to national security, seem wilfully concocted to confuse.
Value Golf, a website for booking tee-off times, can be found in the same non-critical category as MUFG, the country’s largest bank. Golf-Do, a purveyor of second-hand clubs, sits a rung of sensitivity higher along with Fanuc, Japan’s most important manufacturer of industrial robots. Resort Trust, which operates a chain of luxury golf courses, ranks in the most protected group alongside Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds military submarines.
Quirkily triaged, perhaps. But also revealing of Japan’s attitude towards business and, possibly, a template for governments around the world as coronavirus violently redefines the scope and meaning of national security.