What the FT takeover means for Japan and Asia

A LOT of the commentary on the announced takeover of Britain's Financial Times newspaper by Japan's Nikkei media company has focused on issues of editorial control and style. However we need to look at the £844 million (S$1.8 billion) acquisition from a wider perspective.

It may be too early to see the move as the beginning of a gradual rise in Asian influence over English-language international business media. This sector is firmly in the clutch of well-entrenched Anglo-American information groups. They seem unlikely to abandon their hold any time soon. But, just as Asian banks and financial companies make greater inroads into western markets, it would be logical to expect more Chinese, Indian, Singaporean and Malaysian capital - as well as Japanese - to be deployed in international business media in coming years.

Nikkei's brand of corporate journalism is frequently said to restrain its journalists' readiness to highlight impropriety or shortcomings on the Japanese economic and financial scene. Pundits ask how this will fit with the FT's more freewheeling approach, quintessentially English, yet indubitably non-reverential. Rather than abrupt change, a process of osmosis looks likely. The staid Nikkei will move (slowly) towards the FT's swashbuckling style, rather than vice versa. And the FT will considerably boost its often patchy coverage of Asia. Readers everywhere will benefit.