The Japanese have invaded America again.

One difference between 1989 and that fateful day in 1941 is this time the Japanese may win the prize at stake -- control of American businesses.

Forty-eight years ago the Japanese began to tap into their technological capabilities and attacked a well-developed, well-endowed America. They were defeated.

Since then Japan has advanced as the world's largest creditor nation with net foreign investments of $240 billion, pushing the U.S. behind as the world's largest debtor nation with a net foreign debt of $400 billion. What happened?

The change in international status can be attributed to a long list of American faults, ranging from domestic problems such as employers who don't utilize blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans to their fullest potential to Americans who don't support this country by buying American-made products. This country's faults are quickly becoming Japan's assets.

However, Japan's international achievements and successful investments in American business cannot all be attributed to shortcomings in the United States, but also to the Japanese's cleverness and preparation.

International achievements and successful investments in American business have not always been the norm for Japan. Since World War II, the Japanese have been reluctant to take an international stance in areas such as defense, and have channeled all of their energies into their country.

Over the past few decades, however, they have reassessed their position in the world. The Land of the Rising Sun recognizes the light also shines across the Pacific. They are taking a more international stance, rapidly becoming diversified and experienced in many areas.

-- Beer -- After examining the market, the Japanese have decided to introduce their dry beer to the United States this year. The company Suntory already has plotted key points in the eastern and western portions of the United States and is considering Mike Tyson as a major campaigner for the product. Just to keep things a little Americanized they are looking for an American partner.

The Japanese have exported beer to the United States since 1981 and their sales to this country have tripled since that time. They currently make up only 2 percent of the imported beer sales; however their sales are growing 6 percent annually.

-- Banking -- In Japanese business, it is nearly impossible to forget American banking done the Japanese way. In the fiscal year ending in 1988, as U.S., Canadian and British banks posted massive deficits, Japanese bankers profited. Of the top 10 banks last fiscal year, only three were not Japanese, while only one bank that profited was American.

-- Computer chips -- As of July 1988, the Japanese controlled 90 percent of the world supply of dynamic random access memory chips(DRAMS). Why is this so significant?

The chip is the most important part of the computer in an age where every business depends on the machine for success and efficiency. With a monopoly on the market, the Japanese are able to sell the chip back to us at three to five times the production price.

For a little over a year, Japan absorbed a $4 billion loss in order to purchase the entire United States market for DRAMs. Then they sold the chips for less than the market price. Now more than a dozen American companies who manufactured the DRAMs were driven from the business.

Although many American companies saw the plan in progress, only one American company invested in their own chips -- IBM.

The list goes on and on for all of Japan's many earnings and American holdings.

The ideal of hard work which has been ingrained in Japanese culture is the true key to their success. Achievement for them is a mind-set.

Japanese-owned companies in the United States exemplify these attitudes. Most Japanese businessmen and women work toward building a more advanced tomorrow. Japanese spartan Tohru Shima, president of the Tohru Semiconductor Corporation, exemplified this philosophy in an interview in a July issue of Business Weekly.

He shared three objectives -- to foster a new corporate culture, to reach production levels of 3 million computer chips per month and to begin production of the next generation's versions of Motorola microprocessors and Toshiba chips.

If the Japanese continue this control of American business -- and they will, considering a 1988 Business Weekly article reports more than 60 percent of the country's 122 million people have been born into this corporate culture since World War II --Americans will not be listing what is Japanese-owned, but rather, what is not.