Nippon Steel is reaching a critical point in its acquisition of US Steel, a major American steelmaker, which it is planning to invest a huge amount of money, 2 trillion yen. Local media reported that President Biden plans to block the acquisition. Eiji Hashimoto (currently Chairman) announced the acquisition plan as President of Nippon Steel in December 2023 and has been working hard to make it a reality. Why did they embark on such a huge acquisition that will also be influenced by political decisions in the United States? Mr. Hashimoto, who is considered the leading candidate to become the next chairman of the Japan Business Federation and is currently one of the most talked-about business leaders in Japan, was interviewed exclusively by non-fiction writer Hirono Shinji (published in the December 16th issue of Weekly Post). US Steel is considered a symbolic company in American manufacturing, but the United Steelworkers (USW) has consistently opposed its acquisition by Nippon Steel. Because USW has an organized vote of about 1.2 million, ahead of the US presidential election, President Biden issued a statement saying, “It is essential that USW remain an American steel company, owned and operated in the US,” and Trump also said, “If it were me, I would stop it immediately. Absolutely,” he said. The risk of becoming embroiled in political strife in the United States must have been obvious even before the acquisition plan was announced, but in an interview at the end of November, Mr. Hashimoto looked back on when US Steel was put up for sale and said, “I knew there would be trouble, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that wouldn’t come along even if you waited 30, no, 50 years. So I took the plunge,” he said. The acquisition plan is currently being reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFUIS), which assesses risks to U.S. national security, with the review deadline being December 23rd. Based on the results of the review, President Biden will decide whether to take action to block the acquisition. This is a critical moment, but Mr. Hashimoto, who joined Nippon Steel (then Nippon Steel Corporation) in 1979, says that over the course of his career he realized the importance of companies challenging themselves to grow, and that in order to do so he came to believe that global business expansion was necessary. Since taking office as president in April 2019, he has been implementing the necessary reforms to take on big challenges overseas. In the fiscal year ending March 2020, the company recorded a final deficit of 430 billion yen, its largest ever, but in the fiscal year ending March 2023 it is expected to post its highest-ever profit for the second consecutive year. It achieved a V-shaped recovery. Will this huge acquisition attempt bear fruit? Money Post web.
>>1 If you’ve come this far, you have no choice but to succeed in the acquisition. Even if the US government imposes economic sanctions on Japan, do your best. It looks like tariffs will be raised, though.
What a poor move. The timing was bad as it overlapped with the US election. And Pompeo, who he hired as an advisor, is a traitor to Trump and has been useless for four years.
What an idiot. So they took a gamble? Lol, it’s pointless if they don’t negotiate the acquisition with the US government first, right? Are they incompetent and taking on the risk of having to pay the full compensation?
>To take on a big challenge He once again took the gamble that is so typical of Japanese companies, risking the company’s fortunes He only had eyes for the race to get promoted and wanted personal success And what’s more, he had no plan for when things didn’t go well, and couldn’t even cut his losses And he’s ended up with a mountain of big failures.
US: “They bought our souls” Japan: “Just think about why we had to put it up for sale” It was like this when Sony bought Columbia Pictures. (I read it in “Japan Where You Can Say No”).
>>36 You see, steel is the foundation of the nation and a very important core industry in terms of military power. Steel is an industry so important that it’s said to be the foundation of the nation, so there’s no way it can be bought.
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