Just weeks from the first report of Alimentation Couche-Tard’s bid to acquire Japan’s Seven & I Holdings, the battle lines for public opinion are being drawn.

Reports that the target is seeking Japanese government protection from the bid, under the auspices of the country’s Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, have had some asking if this is "Japan Inc.” of yore. The talk already is that any rejection of the Canadian firm’s bid would be a return to the sakoku era of closed-borders opposition to foreign involvement — and, conversely, that acceptance of the takeover attempt would underline Japan’s recent transformation.

Let’s not proceed to the checkout with that idea just yet. For one thing, Couche-Tard has yet to lay out anything about this deal, from a per-share offer to a demonstration of how it intends to manage 7-Eleven better than its current custodians. And though the suggestion that the chain is a critical piece of national infrastructure like nuclear plants might be opportunistic, 7-Eleven has more value than simply its worth to shareholders.