Japan companies shut out of Forbes list of Asia's top 50

SINGAPORE — The business magazine Forbes has released its 2011 roster of Asia's top 50 publicly listed firms, which for the first time includes no Japanese companies.

"Japan, which led the pack with 13 companies six years ago, had no companies this year for the first time, partly a result of the March 11 earthquake," Forbes said in its latest issue, now available at newsstands.

This year's "Fab 50" list is topped by China with 23 companies, up from 16 last year, followed by South Korea with eight companies and India with seven.

Japan had two companies on the list last year — Nintendo Co. and Rakuten Inc. — compared with 2005 when Japan topped the list with 13 companies such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co.

The firms were picked from among more than 1,000 in the Asia-Pacific region with at least $3 billion in revenue or market capital and judged on their financial performance over the last five years, excluding those with too much debt or where the government owns at least half the shares.

View the original article here