ANALYSIS-Japan Inc: back to basics as U.S. model discredited

* Corporate chiefs return to longer-term basics

* Fund managers caught in a bind

* Shareholder value in short term may be compromised

TOKYO, July 16 - Leaders of Japan Inc. believe they have learnt a lesson from the global economic crisis -- namely that the U.S. business model with its eye on short-term gains has failed and it's time to return to longer-term strategies.

Recent remarks by corporate chiefs from companies like Suzuki Motor Corp and Chugai Pharmaceutical Co underscore a desire of Japan's corporate leaders to reject pressure from what they see as short-term interests to concentrate on more sustainable returns.

In one of the most public displays of the current corporate zeitgeist, Osamu Suzuki, who has steered Suzuki for the last 30 years published an essay in February rejecting what he saw as short-term interests tied to earnings.

His views often attract attention, as analysts credit him for having turned his company into a globally-competitive carmaker by making inroads into India decades before it boomed, and expanding revenue more than tenfold.

Arguing against calls from some securities analysts to depreciate the company's factories gradually so that near-term earnings would not suffer as much, Suzuki said the automaker's long-term interests were better served by writing down the cost quickly.

"I have no intention of changing our three-year depreciation policy for our production facilities. We follow the principle of gloom first and ease later," he wrote.

Suzuki's stance and those of other corporate chieftains pit them against fund managers, whose industry is welded to producing quarterly returns and who fear corporate Japan may return to its habits of old -- ignoring the shareholder.

"There are still many companies in Japan which feel no compunction about hurting shareholder values," said Takaaki Umezawa, head of the Japanese arm of U.S. consulting firm AT Kearney.

SPECTACULAR FAILURE

Japan only adopted compulsory quarterly reporting five years ago. Some, like Honda Motor Co, introduced the concept as early as 1979, but Toyota Motor Corp -- a standard bearer for much of corporate Japan -- did not begin until 2003.

The shift brought much grumbling from corporate executives, who worried that the focus on quarterly earnings and share price performance would not reflect the realities of doing business -- a view that has never really gone away.

Motoki Ozaki, the head of household products and cosmetics maker Kao Corp makes a similar argument to Suzuki's, shrugging off calls from investors for the company's non-Japan Asian operations to start showing a profit.

Its Asian operations could be profitable now, but Kao has chosen to plough huge sums into marketing, aiming for a large jump in revenue and profits long-term, he said.

The emphasis on long-term sustainable returns versus short-term profits comes up time and time again, bolstered by the view that amid the spectacular failure of companies like Lehman Brothers and General Motors Corp, the U.S. corporate model has gone fundamentally wrong.

"At Harvard, people are apparently debating what lessons the U.S. should learn from the ongoing crisis. Perhaps there'll be a movement to correct the ways of companies, share prices and profits," Osamu Nagayama, president of Chugai, a unit of Swiss drugmaker Roche, told reporters in March.

"I'm not saying Chugai is going to neglect efforts to improve per-share earnings, but looking at recent developments I think we need to ... aim for stable growth over the mid to long run."

Companies like Suzuki and Kao that have reputations for being well-run may indeed deliver stable long-term growth, and for some, the implications for investing in Japan may be more subtle than seismic.

Goldman Sachs strategist Kathy Matsui says many investors will be fine with the shift in emphasis as long as companies map out a clear picture of longer-term returns.

HARDER TO TALK

But some fund managers point out that pressure on them to produce quarterly results means they'll be focusing on stocks they think will outperform over several months ahead.

"If we put a higher priority on longer-term management goals and demonstrate poor performance for two straight quarters, pension funds and other clients will replace us with another fund manager," said a fund manager with a major Japanese asset management firm.

Fund managers, both Japanese and foreign, also complain that it has become harder to talk to management, while some managers of foreign funds also fear their proposals will be even less likely to be heard.

"I think the overall trend in Japan right now is to criticise the U.S. capitalistic way and justify that the Japanese way is right, especially when it comes to balance sheet management," said a manager at a U.S. fund investing in Japanese companies.

"Now that the 'U.S. way' has presumably failed ... they can potentially disregard what foreigners say."