![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-p.v1.20260423.376cec3f889546d5993b505dee8d1a0b_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Japan")
Screenshot of Makino Korea website.<\/p>\nScreenshot of Makino Korea website.<\/p>\n
The Japanese government has recommended that private equity firm MBK Partners halt its acquisition of Makino Milling Machine, a local machine tool manufacturer. Japan has moved to protect its defense ecosystem by blocking the foreign acquisition of a machine tool company that serves as a foundation of its defense industry.<\/p>\n
According to investment banking sources on Tuesday, the Japanese government recently sent a letter recommending a halt to the acquisition to MM Holdings, a special purpose company (SPC) MBK established in Japan to acquire Makino. The letter specifically stated that “a non-Japanese firm should cease its acquisition of a Japanese defense company,” sources said.<\/p>\n
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama held a press conference at the Ministry of Finance on the same day and confirmed that the recommendation to halt the acquisition had been issued to MBK. “We took into account that Makino manufactures world-class machine tools and widely supplies Japanese defense equipment manufacturers,” Katayama said. “We determined that this investment could potentially lead to a situation that undermines national security.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, who serves as the Japanese government’s spokesperson, also said at a press conference that day, “This measure was taken based on the judgment that it could undermine national security, following the opinion of the deliberative council.”<\/p>\n
Machine tool companies are classified as a core industry under Japan’s Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act because they possess the technology to manufacture defense equipment. Foreign investors must undergo government review in advance to acquire equity stakes. MBK must decide whether to accept the recommendation within 10 days of receiving it. If MBK refuses, the Japanese government can issue an order to halt the acquisition.<\/p>\n
MBK stepped in as a “white knight” for Makino in April last year when the company faced a hostile merger and acquisition (M&A) attempt by Japanese electronic components maker Nidec. MBK had planned to secure all outstanding shares through a tender offer in June this year and proceed with a voluntary delisting, but the plan has hit a snag. “We will carefully review the Japanese government’s recommendation,” an MBK official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Screenshot of Makino Korea website. The Japanese government has recommended that private equity firm MBK Partners halt its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[217,215,8998,8997,214,216,8999,8996,8995,4787,9000,426],"class_list":["post-10461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-business-of-japan","tag-foreign-acquisition","tag-japan-defense-industry","tag-japans-business","tag-japanese-business","tag-machine-tool-manufacturer","tag-makino-milling-machine","tag-mbk-partners","tag-nidec","tag-private-equity-japan","tag-satsuki-katayama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}