Workers stage Japan's first strike in decades over department store sale
finance.yahoo.com
TOKYO (Reuters) -Workers at a major Tokyo department store went on strike on Thursday after talks with management over the planned sale of their company broke down, marking the first major walk-out the country has seen in decades. Some 900 workers at the flagship Seibu store in the bustling district of Ikebukuro are protesting the sale of Sogo & Seibu, a unit of Japanese retail giant Seven & i, to U.S. fund Fortress Investment Group. Critics, who include officials in Ikebukuro, argue that such a change would cheapen Seibu's image by replacing many individual boutiques in store.

"You can acquire a Japanese company, as a foreigner, through brute force, and it's not going to do you any good if the people who are actually managing the Japanese company and working for the Japanese company aren't happy with results."