M&A in Japan Up 9% from January to July
As Chako pointed out last week, recently released stats show a significant increase in Japanese M&A. This AP report does a poor job in indicating period-over-period increases, but the higher level of activity is still obvious:

Japan had 1,641 merger and acquisition deals worth more than 7.88 trillion yen (US$68.5 billion; euro53.86 billion) from January-July, according to data released by Recof Corp., a Tokyo-based merger consultancy. The total is up 8.7 percent from the same time last year, when Japan had a record 2,725 mergers worth 11.8 trillion yen (US$102.6 billion; euro80.67 billion) for the full 12 months.

Foreign acquisitions alone hit 173, reaching an all-time high of 4.45 trillion yen (US$38.7 billion; euro30.43 billion) in value, more than any other year in full. The previous record was in 3.41 trillion yen (US$29.7 billion; euro23.35 billion) in 2000.