Over a quarter of those entering the country in the past few years have been makers of electrical and electronic appliances and parts. Minebeas has made Thailand its world production center, where it employs 12,000 workers compared to only 3,500 in Japan. A company-owned Boeing 727 connects Japan, Thailand and Singapore twice a week. Sharp has even made Thailand its largest offshore production base in the world, with 80 percent of output for export to Europe and the United States. But apart from a share of the profits for the joint-venture partners, it seems that the local economies receive few developmental benefits from Japanese investments.
Technology transfer is almost non-existent.
But in the case of designing and development technology, Japanese companies are quite hesitant to transfer such know-how to Thailand, as Western firms do. The Japanese seem to regard Thailand as only an export base and not as a development base. Malaysia is also very attractive to Japanese electronic companies looking for cheap offshore production sites. The key components of this environment are low wages and a workforce which is only permitted to organize in in-house unions. A few Japanese electronics manufacturers, like Matsushita with its six large subsidiaries, have been there for some time.