One of the relatively few writers urging positive remedial action is Mitarai Fujio, chairman of Canon.

FORBES: Is This the Japan that We Hoped For?

Few of Japan's manufacturing bosses, however, are as relaxed as Mr Mitarai is about China.

ECONOMIST: Manufacturing in Japan

Mitarai believes that answer is clear: First, Japan must actively enter into trade and investment-liberalizing agreements.

FORBES: Is This the Japan that We Hoped For?

The 70-year-old Uchida will be replaced by 76-year-old chairman Fujio Mitarai, with Uchida slipping into an advisory role.

ENGADGET: Canon announces middling Q4 2011 earnings report, president steps down

Mr Mitarai was lucky enough to inherit a firm with this kind of leadership, in a sector with high barriers to entry.

ECONOMIST: Canon

That is a better position to occupy than that of most of Japan's indebted electronics giants, but many shareholders would be happier if Mr Mitarai returned more money to them.

ECONOMIST: Canon

Mitarai describes the crisis in plain language: seemingly unstoppable decline in birth rates, a turn to population decline, doubts about the future of the social security system, a shrinking domestic market.

FORBES: Is This the Japan that We Hoped For?

Mr Mitarai told The Economist recently that he has a rough cut-off rule for allocating investment: anything for which labour comprises more than 5% of production costs can be done in China or some other low-wage country.

ECONOMIST: Manufacturing in Japan

True, Mr Mitarai could do better.

ECONOMIST: Canon

It is a coincidence of course, but the April 24 Nihon Keizai Shimbun carried an editorial that might have been a response to one of the three critical challenges that Canon chairman Mitarai believes must be successfully addressed if Japan is to avoid terminal decline (see the previous post).

FORBES: Boldly Reform Higher Education! Yes!