Foot in the door

AFTER years of government pampering, Japanese firms are trying to rewire themselves as entrepreneurial machines capable of doing business online and working at warp speed. Except that few Japanese firms have a clue how to proceed. Steeped in a corporate culture that favours making machines (video recorders, computer parts and motor cars) rather than the things that let them function (movies, programs and even petrol), most are leery about joining the intangible free-for-all that is the Internet.