One of the biggest stories to watch for this year is Toyota's almost-certain-to-happen rise to the top, beating General Motors as the world's No. 1 automaker in annual global vehicle production (and sales).
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/wheels/297527_road29.html
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/12/22/toyota_quietly_ascending_to_no_1_spot/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060920.w-btoyota0920/BNStory/Business/home
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/industries/automotive/16295762.htm?source=rss&channel=mercurynews_automotive
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5250509,00.html
And there's Sony. Sony needs to perk up its image (after the embarrassing massive recall of lithium-ion batteries). And the new year has started with everyone talking about the iPhone instead. Sony has so much riding on how the PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray disk fare this year. Maybe we need to even watch for takeover attempts and management shuffles?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060731.gtsony31/BNStory/Technology/home
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/15551932.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15992406/
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20060729-1355-sonyat60.html
Japan hopes to lead the world in robotics, and robots are constantly in the news here. Stories about robots make for a fun read (and fun reporting), partly because Japan views robots as cute nearly human companions _ a contrast to the view prevalent in the West of robots as tools.
http://asap.ap.org/stories/1098253.s
http://www.pdxguide.com/marketplace/moneynews/ASAP01042007news362581.cfm
http://www.columbiantalk.com/read/moneynews/ASAP12202006news355146.cfm
An important development to monitor this year is Japan's defense business. Japan is growing more assertive on the international stage, and the government has made no secret of its ambitions to beef up defense. The nuclear threat from North Korea has encouraged public support for the changes.
http://asap.ap.org/stories/1039331.s
Interesting comments about SONY. You might be interested to know that the business commentary here in the US (well, NYT at least), since the Christmas PS3 intro. and last week's Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas is... harsher(?) than your gentle rooting (for them). After the initial frenzy over the new Play Station, business reporters noted that both Xbox and WII are in much stronger positions. Xbox because there are a lot more games available for it right now than Play Station, and WII because it has apparently hit a new and unserved and potentially very lucrative market segment -which at the moment it has to itself.
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