A call to NEC’s U.S. headquarters in Irving, Texas, provided the information that the company developed all its cellular phone software in Fukuoka, Japan. A couple of calls to NEC Fukuoka led me to their Mobile Radio Division, where a telephone receptionist found someone who spoke English to translate for me. That’s always an advantage, because the translator lends authenticity: she’s right there in the same building, speaking the same language as your target. The person at the end of the chain tends to assume you’ve already been vetted. And in this case, it also helped that the level of trust is so high in the Japanese culture.