Re: [tlug] Re: [OT] Say _no_ to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Edward Middleton writes:

 > Could the high bankruptcies rate be attributed to companies started
 > without sufficient capital, the whole one yen kaisha thing?

No.  First, Japan has always had high rates of business formation and
failure (I mean, back to the Meiji Era at least).

Second, AFAICT the nominal "paid-in capital" has nothing to with
capital resources available to the firm.  For example, when the tax
system was changed a couple years back to compute taxes based partly
on paid-in capital, one of the big oil companies (IIRC it was the
subsidiary of Mobil, definitely gaishikei) reduced its capital from
something like 500 oku-en to under 1 oku-en (that being the point
where the capital-based tax became zero).  They paid the money back to
the parent, which turned around and loaned it to them at a very low
rate of interest.  The Treasury gnashed its teeth, but there are
advantages to being gaishikei and trading an essential resource.  A
lot of Japanese firms have done the same thing, although to a much
less spectacular degree.  Still the "focal point" at 1 oku-en is very
clearly reflected in the post-change data, and not present at all in
the pre-change data.

I'm not sure what the explanation might be, especially given the
extreme stigma attached to personal bankruptcy.