> why is it that a company like Toshiba, in operation for more than a century, is dependent on the goodwill of banks to remain solvent? This is historically ve

> why is it that a company like Toshiba, in operation for more than a century, is dependent on the goodwill of banks to remain solvent? This is historically very common in Japan, where they are known as Zombie companies. [1] It's been suggested that this is due to a fierce cultural taboo against failure. So, for example, corporate bankruptcy rates in Japan are extraordinary low - not because Japanese companies are so much better, but because Japanese banks keep poorly performing corporations alive using debt. The bad debts then lead to the phenomenon of Zombie banks [2] that are kept alive by the government. The Japanese government also directly bails out technology companies through the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) [3], which bailed out Sharp last January with a $1.7 billion loan. This "Zombie" behaviour is thought to be partly responsible for the decades of Japanese economic under-performance known as the "Lost Decades" [5]. It is also feared that "Zombies" are becoming widespread in China. It might also be showing up European and even US economies due to bail-outs actions taken by those governments after the financial crisis. It seems to me that Trump's brand of economic policy might also create these types of Zombie problems. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_company#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_company#History [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_bank [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INCJ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INCJ [4] http://www.reuters.com/article/sharp-restructuring-incj-idUSL3N14V16S20160111 http://www.reuters.com/article/sharp-restructuring-incj-idUS... [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan)