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Aren't Google AdWords effectively "stable keywords for sale" today?

That's sort of been happening in the UK. Instead of some companies giving out a URL, they'll just say "Search xyz for more information"

I already see this happening in Japan. Rarely do I see ads include URLs, they have a search term.

Which IMO is a smart idea. URLs are too often hard to remember and/or type correctly if not too long anyway.

Until a competitor's SEO outranks your site for those keywords or buys similar Google AdWords.

Those keywords are not supposed to live long: they are used as part of marketing campaigns. But your comment is still valid. Such a strategy would be very risky in the long term.

Agreed. It also solves another problem in Japan, namely that brand names etc are usually written in Japanese letters, but URLs in ASCII (yes, I'm aware of IDN, but haven't ever seen it used). This is obviously not limited to Japan, I wouldn't be surprised if other countries used the same trick.