In Japan, Dead American Brands Get a Second Chance www.citylab.com

Tower Records vanished from America's malls more than a decade ago.
North American visitors to the shopping corridors of Tokyo and Osaka may be surprised to find brands they’d written off as dead at home.
So the decisions that made one company go belly-up in the United States wouldn’t necessarily bear on stores in Japan or its neighbors.
American brands still carry cachet Japan also holds an appreciation for certain storied American imports.
“It lives on as an American fantasy, rather than the real American experience,” Marx said.