TOKYO — In the late 1980s, cash-rich Japanese companies began buying up prized American landmarks such as the famed Pebble Beach golf course.

Are Chinese companies about to do the same to Japan? Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, took a first step in that direction, today announcing it would buy nearly 10% of Japanese icon Sharp in a cash-for-shares deal worth more than $800 million.

The deal provides a much-needed cash infusion to Sharp, which has seen earnings severely dragged down by losses stemming from its ¥1 trillion LCD panel plant. The Sakai, Japan-based site was just built in 2009, but Sharp wildly overestimated demand for large-sized LCD panels, and the factory has been running well below capacity.

Under terms of the deal, Sharp will issue nearly ¥67 billion in new shares to Hon Hai. Under the agreement, which was announced today, Hon Hai also gains half of Sharp's 93% stake in the LCD factory. (Sony owns the remainder of the venture.)

The deal also draws attention away, for the moment, from Hon Hai's troubles in China, where workers rights groups have repeatedly accused the Taiwan-based company of exploiting its lower-level employees.

Over the years, Hon Hai has become one of the world's largest companies through a series of shrewd business deals. Historians might do well to remember, however, that not 10 years after they bought Pebble Beach sold, the Japanese investors sold it back -- after taking $341 million in losses.

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