In a development that has convulsed the Japanese food and beverage sector, Japan's largest beer company Kirin Holdings on Tuesday confirmed a media report that it is in merger talks with Suntory Holdings to create the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world. However, Nobutada Saji, Suntory's president and a member of the founding family, insisted that the two companies had taken "only half a step".Nevertheless, it's an exciting development. For decades the Japanese beer industry has been frozen, with Asahi, Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo (in that ...