Corporate planning teams in each company spend most of the year window shopping, and only look to pull the trigger after they've seen everything that is available for that given fiscal year.

Kameda told the Nikkei it was buying MGC because of a familiar reason -- the market in Japan is mature and flat and the firm is looking for growth strategies abroad.

Dentsu is paying a huge 48% premium over the last closing price for the object of its desire -- marketing group Aegis, making the takeover deal worth about US$5bn.

Over the last 9 months the amount of foreign M&As being done by Japanese companies has been remarkable.

Despite the big numbers, there is also plenty of action at lower levels, like Osaka firm Endo Lighting.

This "merger of equals" would create Japan's second largest company after Toyota.

Japan's largest Internet company announced that it is acquiring Tradoria GmbH, Germany's largest online shopping firm.

Noritsu Koki announced that it would buy Tochigi-based telemedicine company called Doctor NET.

In December 2009 there was an uptick in the number of deals indicating that we may be in for a strong year of M&A activity.