When things were downright dismal at Nintendo in 2013, its late, remarkable president Satoru Iwata told shareholders exactly why two straight years of operating losses was no reason at all to sack anyone.

“I sincerely doubt employees who fear they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world,” he said, dismissing morale-sapping pressure from investors to cut headcount and jeopardise the brilliance of game franchises such as Mario and Zelda for the sake of short-term financial results. 

A decade later, corporate Japan remains defined by that clash: a top-down, instinctive rejection of full-bore shareholder primacy versus the mostly imported faith that it is both the only guarantee of progress and the only way to secure the future of an old, shrinking society.