"Japan's electronics industry must consolidate if it is to remain competitive" Nobuyuki Idei, the former Sony chairman said at the weekend.

"In the past, Japan was criticised for being an over-banked country; now it is over-electronics," he told the Financial Times. He also said that one key factor that could force consolidation is the yen's 73 per cent rise against the Korean won since the beginning of 2008, which makes Japanese exports less competitive.

According to the Financial Times Mr Idei - who ran Sony from 1999 to 2005 - criticised the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso and the Bank of Japan for their inaction over the currency.

"Mr Aso visited Korea but I couldn't find any evidence that they talked about the yen," he said. They talked about free trade deals, instead, but given the level of the won and the yen Mr Idei says progress on this front was "impossible".

For the future, Mr Idei tipped electronics that do not just process information, but sense what it is happening in the world and then act on it. He gave Nintendo's Wii games console - which uses accelerometers to measure how a user is moving the controls - as an example.

It is the cluster of Kyoto-based technology companies, including Nintendo, that makes Mr Idei confident in the future of Japan's electronics industry.