When is a buyout premium not a buyout premium? In Japan, at least, it’s when the cross-shareholdings companies hold get in the way. The issue is going to come into sharp focus if Toyota Motor Chair Akio Toyoda and his family follow through on the 6 trillion yen ($42 billion) offer reported by Bloomberg on Friday to take private Toyota Industries ,

Toyota Industries Corp. shares surged by their daily limit as investors scrambled to interpret what Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda’s proposal to buy out the company would mean for corporate governance at Japan’s largest business group.

Toyota Industries said it received a proposal to take the company private, sending its shares to a record high.