Seven & I and Nissan deal fallout leaves Japan companies vulnerable

It seemed like an extraordinary display of patriotism and unity: Japan’s biggest companies would come together to save their own, whether ailing carmaker Nissan or besieged convenience store giant Seven & I Holdings.

Roughly six months later, ambitious plans to merge Nissan with Honda and take the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores private have both fallen apart, leaving them grasping for solutions and potentially even more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.

The failure to find a fix that would keep two of the country’s most famous brands under Japanese control marks an unprecedented opening in its corporate landscape, and shows how hastily conceived rescue plans can succumb to market forces.