If by 'critical' you mean CNI then you must know that Japan's regulations go much wider than this. SEGA is a sixty year old company with a deep Japanese culture. Has there ever been a US acquisition of a Japanese gaming company?
I can't find a single one. Japanese companies acquire each other (Bandai / Namco, Square / Taito) and Japanese companies acquire foreign companies (Sony / Gaikai, Square / Eidos, SEGA / Relic) but a US firm getting approval to buy a sixty-year old Japanese seems damn unlikely given the Japanese government's stance on this.
It's not gaming, but it is an American company outright owning a Japanese corporation. And not one that was defunct, Seiyu's had and continues to have a presence across Japan and have never ceased operations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiyu_Group
This one particularly stands out as I was confused back in the 2000's when a local Seiyu's in Japan had Walmart shopping carts. This is a corporation that was founded back in the 1940's. Walmart had 100% ownership, but have since sold most of their ownship to another foreign company with some minority shares getting sold to a Japanese company.
Some examples of majority ownership and possibility of future full 100% ownership.
Sharp (founded in 1912) - 65% ownership by the Taiwan based Foxconn group
Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus - 89.2% owned by Germany's Daimler.
Toshiba was majority owned by General Electric way back in 1905, so this Foreign ownership isn't unknown.
Somewhere in one of the forums around here, I basically outlined what it takes for a Japanese corporation to eventually be approved for full foreign ownership. It's difficult, but not impossible.
Companies that will be as close to impossible to acquire would be ones that are tied to Japan's financial market or infrastructure (like utilities). Thus it would be difficult for a foreign company to acquire Sony, for example, as it's currently structured, but it becomes much easier if their financial arm were spun off into another company.
I can't remember where I was reading about it (one of the Japanese newspapers), but approximately 1/4 of Japanese businesses are foreign owned. Not foreign businesses with a presence in Japan (like Ford or Samsung), but actual ownership of businesses founded in Japan.
Just because it hasn't yet happened to a Japanese gaming company doesn't mean it can't or won't happen.
That said, Japan has recently (past few years) tightened up regulations for some business sectors specifically to slow down or preventing Chinese ownership of Japanese businesses.
Regards,
SB
