Japanese companies should be snapping up acquisitions all over the world. Balance sheets are light on debt and heavy on cash: Canon, which reported strong first-quarter figures yesterday, has $7.2bn in net cash and equivalents, more than LG Electronics, Ericsson and Xerox put together. Debt has rarely been cheaper, with higher-rated companies paying just a few dozen basis points over government bond yields. Paying with stock should be no stretch either, as the world's highest price/earnings ratios give