From: fester@island.COM (Mike Fester)
Subject: Re: DOES AMERICA SAY YES TO JAPAN? - Off track!!
Organization: /usr/local/rn/organization
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 17:13:09 GMT

In article <1992Dec19.200807.16856@midway.uchicago.edu> ar12@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <1992Dec18.205739.11193@doug.cae.wisc.edu> kolstad@cae.wisc.edu (Joel Kolstad) writes:
>>The Japan discussion is rather interesting...

>It sounds like you haven't read the article, you may want to do this before
>commenting on this subject as several of your statements seem to be
>misguided.
>You can get an FTP copy at monu6.cc.monash.edu.au in pub/nihongo as JAPANYES.
>I'd be interested in hearing your comments once you've read it.
>-Andre

I HAVE read it, and I have copies available. I also gave a paragraph-by-para-
graph analysis of it. Does that qualify?

>>2) (And this is the one I care more about) There is simply no American
>>competition in some products that I really like; for instance, some
>>Japanese made products that I could NOT buy "Made in the U.S.A." even if I
>>wanted to: My Casio DBX-1000 touchscreen databank watch, my Technics
>deleted
>>
>>I really think that people should buy whatever they want from whomever can
>>provide it at the best price, keeping in mind that product quality
>>contributes a lot to the overall price of a product.  As long as you have
>>skills that are in demand somewhere in the world, you'll be able to get a
>>job.  

>deleted
>>them out of business is interesting, but I don't think that the government
>>needs to intervene.  The mass media these days will be happy to point out

>...again, please read the article, then comment...you will see why what
>you have said is incorrect.

As I commented in my rebuttal on soc.culture.japan, there is some good material
in the series. Unfortunately, none of the good material is original to the 
author, some of it taken almost directly out of (eg) _The Enigma of Japanese
Power_ by van Wolferen (a copy of which sits on my desk), without proper 
attribution. Much of the original material is erroneous, badly out-of-date, and/
or completely unsubstantiated. The author claims (among other things) that

"has more meaning to the Japanese than you may first think. The word
'business man' in Japanese translates literally into English as 'Company
Soldier'. Japanese businessmen do not have pictures of their family or
loved ones at the office because they 'do not want to mix family with
battle'. When a Japanese man joins a company, he usually does so for life."

Never is this Japanese word mentioned. The most common words are "shain",
"sararii-man", and "bijinessu-man". None of these has any meaning of "Company
Soldier". The nonsense about family pictures was exactly that; nonsense, at
least in the companies I worked at, and at the offices I visited (Nikkon, Japan
Steel, JAL, Tetrapod, NTT, Fujitsu, etc). Further, this "lifetime employment" is
applicable only to the top companies, and even that is changing, as headhunter
companies are getting more clients than ever before. 

In short, the series was sophomoric at best, and not even advanced sophomoric.
There are amazing lapses in logic, such as when the author indicates his 
surprise that a company with the name Japan Victor Company is actually Japanese,

"This is a list of some Japanese (or Japanese owned and controlled)
companies. Some of the names that make this list may surprise you,
depicted by '*':
...
* JVC (Japan Victor Company; owned by Matsushita Industrial Electric)"

and as when the author claims:

"     An other false claim, most often made by Japanese trade
representatives, states that it is naturally expected that Japan has a
trade surplus with America. This is because if every Japanese bought $100
of goods from America, and every American bought $100 worth of goods from
Japan, an imbalance would occur in Japan's favor as there are twice as
many Americans as Japanese in the world. "

Yet, in the very NEXT paragraph, the author states:

"     This is a mathematical fallacy. To see more clearly this picture,
imagine a world with 2 countries, one with 100 citizens, and an other with
1 citizen, you. Each person has $200 to their name. Every year you buy
$100 of goods from the other country, and each of their citizens buy $100
of goods from your country. If you work out this example, you will see
that in a little over 2 years, you will have accumulated all of the money
in the world and the other country will be penniless. This is the current
state of affairs between Japan and its trading partners. Although things
are actually occurring more slowly, this is the trend."

From which we get: a) this is a "false claim" b) this is a "mathematical 
fallacy" c) and this is the "current state of affairs". No further explanation
is forthcoming.

Rather sad, actually.

In short, my advice is to read van Wolferen's book. While not perfect, it is
comprehensive in scope, and written by someone who has spents years in Japan
(not by someone who spent a couple of months there), and who also gives proper
credit to his non-original ideas.

Mike





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