Under its energetic 62 year old CEO, Okafuji Masahiro, Itochu continues to earn its long-held reputation as a pathbreaker and innovator in Japanese business globalization.
Having dropped (back in 1990) a plan to build the world's biggest ice-breaker, the Canadians may also have to seek Russian help next time they need to carve out a path to the North Pole: even the patrol boats ordered up by Mr Harper this month won't match Russia's leviathans.