#FinancialResultsFY2011

Further on today’s results conference at Nissan, I could regale (or most likely bore) you with what you will hear from just about any Japanese carmaker, and possibly from non-Japanese carmakers as well: Last year was a good year, the March 11 tsunami makes this year a challenging year, but what will not kill us makes us stronger, and in ancient China, crisis and opportunity were one and the same.

Now this is Nissan and Carlos Ghosn who has bet a farm in France and one in Japan on the future of the electric car. Ghosn made a few points today that are well worth noting. He talked about nukes, CO2, blackouts – and batteries.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn treated reporters to his trademark Gallic body language and quick-witted repartees during the presentation of the fiscal year 2010 results today at Nissan’s swank waterfront headquarters in Yokohama. Ghosn delighted stockholders and analysts with the news that Japan’s #2 automaker made a net profit of 319.2 billion yen (US $3.72 billion) on net revenues of 8.7731 trillion yen (US $102.37 billion). Operating profit was 537.5 billion yen (US $6.27 billion). Ghosn created much happiness by announcing that the last quarter of the fiscal year, which ended on March 31, resulted in an operating profit of 88.6 billion yen ($1.1 billion), also exceeding expectations.

When I arrived at Toyota’s downtown Tokyo basement conference room, I bumped into Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco, who was in the grips of stage fright. Annual results conferences with the world watching can do that to a spokesman. Trying to cheer Paul up in my charming way, I said: “Come on Paul. This one will be great. It’s the next ones that will be rotten as hell.” Paul gave me a pained look.

When I left an hour and a half later, I had changed my mind. Toyota will survive this crisis just like it survived the previous two: Stronger. Not unscathed, but not as badly affected as some officially fear and silently hope. What may not survive are Japanese jobs.