It is tough for Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) to leave Japan, even though its sales there look terrible. There are only so many large markets, and to keep it worldly growth moving, it needs to be in nearly all of them.

The world’s largest retailer did have a firm instance in the big Asian market final year. The operation there said “it now expected to post a group net loss of 20.9 billion yen ($196 million) for calendar 2007, instead of its preceding forecast for a loss of 10.4 billion yen, ” according to Reuters. Same-store sales for the year dropped just by 1%.

The naughty thing about Japan is that sales are flat. The good thing is that the government there

allows Wal-Mart to function without meaningful regulation. The politics of Japan are regular.

Wal-Mart has had success in China and hopes to move into India, but those countries have many more restrictions for doing commerce. At that point Wal-Mart cannot cannot even enter India under its own name. In China, Wal-Mart workers are members of unions and the communist party has a wing in the retailer.

Perhaps a market with modest potential and a large population is better than those with big commerce risks.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Original post by Douglas McIntyre

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