That has helped them dominate their niches, with global market shares of up to 90%.

ECONOMIST: The fabled Mittelstand is feeling the pinch more than most

They boast large global market shares in specialised niches: ceramics and other fine materials for semiconductors, tiny motors for hard drives and other digital equipment, a range of sophisticated machines for making liquid-crystal display panels, and so forth.

ECONOMIST: Manufacturing in Japan

Perhaps the decline of Reader's Digest's fortunes was inevitable with the longer-term social and political influences of 60s counterculture, the failure of general interest magazines, the rise of global media targeted at specific niches and the advent of the internet.

CNN: Rise and fall of Reader's Digest

Whereas big Japanese electronics companies such as Panasonic, Sharp and Sony have been losing market share to rivals from China, South Korea and Taiwan, these smaller, less well known Japanese firms continue to dominate niches upon which the global technology industry depends.

ECONOMIST: Japan's technology champions