Sounds to me like you met a disgruntled mid-40s manager about to jump ship. The mere fact that this guy met with a foreigner to let off steam says more about the current state of Japanese management than anything he said. In any case he can be sure none of his superiors will see this article unless someone translates it to Japanese (unlikely).

There is too much whining and "Japanese salarymen are not what they used to be". As someone working in a Japanese company, I see the opposite: The old guard, with their insistence on "serving the company without regard for the self" tire young, enthusiastic employees with needless overtime, bureaucracy to keep the middle management busy, stifling initiative and risk-taking because nothing can be done without consensus. No wonder the young, talented ones brush up their CVs and run. It's not them being illoyal, it's Sony being unable to keep them.

As for what happened to Sony, it simply spread to far and lost sight of what it is: a consumer electronics company. They should get rid of the music labels and movie studios and concentrate on living room hardware again.

At the end of the 90ies, everybody thought it's control of content that will make the next winner. With youtube and friends, that turned out to be wrong. Instead, Apple was right: You need great software with your hardware, and you need to control the channel, not the content.

As I see it, one of Sony's major problems up until the last few years was their continuing assumption that people would unquestioningly pay over the odds for the Sony brand despite the absence of any feature or quality differentiation from their competitors, or similarly pay the same for an inferior product.

They appear to be turning this attitude around lately, but changes in consumer confidence aren't instant; the reason they were able to carry on like this for as long as they did is the same reason it's taking them a while to rectify the situation.

It isn't just Japan, it's the world. Think of any great brand, whatever it represented - Sears, 
Chevrolet 65--70, just name it. They are gone.
Every product now gets out of it's warranty, enough to prevent arguments, and just crumbles.
Those money-sniffing young execs represent almost every colleague I have had. And why not? What are they going to do for you if you are 'loyal'? If they have to lay off, they do.
And, i must say, the old sensei has a slightly romantic view of old Japan. Yes, people were dedicated - but only vertically, to the boss. The department next door could go to hell.
And you already mentioned the lack of individual initiative.
One of the cleverest ways of dealing with modern realities was implemented by Fender, the guitar maker. They have cheap guitars, made in Mexico. And they don't hide it. Actually, for $175 or so, they are pretty good. And then they have guitars 100% made (and hand finished) in the USA. They are seriously good - and 15 times the price.
The only other alternative seems to be the Harley route. They finally realized they were an icon. They make them just like the 50s - heavy castings, steel, thick chrome. And they cost as much as they have to (the price of a good car!) And yet no one could start an unknown company, particularly in tech, and act like these examples.

Gee, sounds so much like an American story. Glad the see the Japs have finally fallen to our level of competitiveness. And someone hungrier is eating THEIR lunch, haha!

As a company ages, it loses it's edge. At the beginning, you've got nothing to lose so you aim for the top. Eventually, staff start caring about losing their position rather than reaching for new glory. There's no rewards for success but punishment for failure so no one takes any chances by innovating anymore. It's not just the Japanese companies that have these problems, it's every company everywhere. Just give those successful taipei companies 20 years and they'll be in the same spot.