Japan still the driving force

By any reckoning, it has been quite a year for Japanese auto companies, whose results have just landed. Record earnings at Nissan and Toyota, dramatic swings from losses to profits at Mitsubishi Motor and Mazda, all this comes amid much change in the industry. The salutary performances turned in by Japan's big-brand car manufacturers also come with some sort of weird celebratory ritual among the 'gaijin,'' as we foreigners are known. Somehow, these companies are now supposed to be something other than Japanese. They're succeeding to the extent that they've begun to follow the lead of i...