Mark Lerner, former head of the Japan Corporate Finance Group at Chase Manhattan Bank and prior to that, the Japan Banking Group at Merrill Lynch, has struck out on his own with a new boutique focusing on US/Japan cross-border business. Morgen, Evan & Associates (named after his financial backers) will seek to help US businesses find Japanese partners, and to raise capital.

Japanese buyers have become much less visible in the U.S. markets of late, but Lerner says the surface action is not the whole picture. "The media hype of Japanese M & A went way beyond the reality," he says. While Japanese buyers may have stopped making full-fledged acquisitions, they're still interested in making investments, he adds. "They're still interested in U.S. technology, they still want access to U.S. distribution systems."

Taking a 20% equity stake in a U.S. company, for instance, can give a foreign investor all those things, without the headaches of a full-fledged acquisition - and for a lower price. Since starting up his new firm, Lerner says he's been deluged with calls from U.S. businessmen interested in making deals with Japanese partners. He says he has been retained by three companies so far, and expects to have six to ten transactions working within the next few months.

Lerner has experience in the Japanese market dating back to 1979, when he was in Bankers Trust Co.'s international banking department. His partner in Morgen, Evan & Associates is Scott Strauss, and attorney.