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I'm not sure I'd say a company that makes ceramic toilets also making a tool for memory chips... which is also ceramic is really 'different things'. They're clearly a ceramic company. Different tolerances, but similar expertise.

Now the paper company got into the hotel business seems a far better example. No idea how that happens.

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> Now the paper company got into the hotel business seems a far better example. No idea how that happens.

That's easy. They have corporate visitors to their corporate offices and the available hotels are insufficient. They decide to just make their own hotel.

There are many corporate campuses with an embedded hotel. Some run by the corporation itself, some with significant management contracting with the corporation, and some independently managed.

Large corporation has a small travel business is very common.

And don't the Japanese railways make all their money from the real estate around their lines, or some such?

I'd bet the leaders of the Japanese ceramic company have some deep ties and focus on ceramics, while the leaders of the US paper company have deep ties and focus on the financial industry.

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