From: rvkl60@aus18a25.sps.mot.com (Tom Mathes)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Try it again - RE: Please give me your opinions...
Date: 10 Nov 92 00:07:53 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Motorola Inc, Austin, Texas

In article <SMITTIE.92Nov6113448@tui.csulb.edu> smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie) writes:
>I replied to this once already. This article is far too long and inane to go
>through line by line and discuss of refute in this medium.
>
>The author, in several places, tries to imply that he is offering something new
>to the argument. He is not. The entire article is a rehash of rhetoric normally
>labelled "Japan bashing." I am not normally one to label things as many times
>this causes one to overlook true and relavent points. However, this author,
>insofar as I can see, offers absolutely nothing new.
>
>Again, I am not going to do a line by line critique of this article here.
>However, to summarize my own thoughts, the author usually takes a point of
>truth and then exploits that truth to the benefit of his argument. While the
>author begins with a point of truth whether he ends up is usually in gross over
>exaggeration. The author does not deal with any of the many issues that negate
>or at least challenge his assertations save those he can easily refute.
>
>On the whole I think this author tries to offer as original work, the efforts
>of a good number of people. This author tries to offer as original, an argument
>that is very old and tired at this point.
>
>smittie

Oh really?  I think the author has a good paper.  If you have a
qualm with it, be specific.  Having dealt with the Japanese in 
business settings, and having gone there myself, I can vouch for 
everything I read in there.  None of it was new to me.

They are in an economic war with the US.  I find it ironic that
whenever America trys to retaliate against obvious Japanese 
protectionism, we are lableled as "Japan bashers" or 
"protectionist".  We are just applying the same rules of
trade as the other side.

Why is Japan not labeled "racist" when high-level government
officials call Americans "dumb and lazy"?  Why is it not protectionist
when American rice farmers aren't allowed in the Japanese 
market?  Or when our retailers, like "Toys 'R' Us" are given
fits to open stores in Japan?  I know first hand the
grief my employer, Motorola, had in getting access to the
cellular phone market in Japan.  We had to get US government
intervention to get the markets opened.  Had we not, Motorola
would never have gotten access to the Japanese market.  Gov-
ernment interference was keeping us out, at the behest
of other Japanese companies.

What about Allied-Signal's problems in marketing a new
transformer alloy in Japan?  That was well documented by
"Business Week" several months ago.  A/S came out with a 
new low-loss metal alloy for transformers, and tried to
market it in Japan.  BUT, since no Japanese company could
produce the product (A/S held the key patents), the government
there blocked the sale of the metal until the domestic
metal makers could effectively clone it and undercut A/S.
In essence, they stole the idea with government help.

How about the recent problems that Cray Research had in
selling supercomputers in Japan?  That too was well
documented in "Business Week" about a month ago.  Here
is a company that sells successfully worldwide, yet has
fits getting into the Japanese market.

To this day, a foreigner cannot buy into a majority stake
or outright own a Japanese business.  Look at the problems
T. Boone Pickens had in trying to buy a supplier to Toyota.
That proves again that Japan doesn't play by the same rules
as others.  They again prove protectionist.

I'm sick of the term "Japan bashing" whenever someone points
up that Japan is still a closed market.  If we played by the 
same rules as the Japanese government did, then Japanese products
would effectively be shut out of our markets.  I don't want
to shut off trade, but it's got to be a two way street.
Right now, it's not.

Whenever I hear the term "Japan bashing", I almost always
find someone with their hands in Japanese pockets or
someone who hasn't studied the subject.  The only ones
who call the article inane are ones who still live in
a fantasy land of academic unreality.  In the real world,
no one practices "free trade", not even the US.  BUT,
Japan is by present standards a protected market and a
country that practices predatory capitalism.  The US is
by a long shot the most open market in the world.

Tom
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan