In this case study, we examine Merrill Lynch, a U.S. based financial service institution that is the third largest mergers and acquisitions adviser behind Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The company serves clients in more than 150 countries worldwide. In this particular case study, we observe Merrill Lynch and its struggle to dominate the Japanese market. Being the first foreign firm to enter Japan’s private client investment market, Merrill Lynch was met with limited success. The company was met with many challenges trying to reside in Japan. A legal and cultural challenge that the company was faced with was Japan’s inability to regulate its economy. Therefore, Japan’s government made it difficult for the company to offer the wide variety of services offered in the United States and even more difficult were four competing stock brokerages that monopolized the Japanese market. These stock brokerages made it difficult for Merrill Lynch to appeal employee talent and customers away from them. Foreign exchange regulations also made it difficult to sell non-Japanese stocks, bonds, and mutual funds to investors. Ethically, Merrill Lynch was challenged to go against the Japanese government in fear of damaging future chances of conquering, or even reentering, the market. Ultimately, Merrill Lynch pulled out of the private client market in Japan and closed its six retail branches. Japan’s government also played a role in Merrill Lynch’s failure in the private client market because of it regulations and control over the market to try and protect itself from outside foreign firms. Eventually, this role caused the Japanese economy to fail. This also caused Japan’s four large stockbrokerages to fall and led to the country’s need for deregulation by the mid 1990’s. By 1997, Yamaichi Securities declared bankruptcy and Japan’s government realized the severity of the economy.