Declan Murphy wrote:

> Eric Takabayashi wrote:
> > Declan Murphy wrote:
> >
> >>As a general rule a company would only tender for a) what they were
> >>actually capable of doing, b) what was worth doing. Put two and two
> >>together and there are usually ample (different) opportunities for firms
> >>of all sizes.
> >
> > Not the same opportunity or same level of opportunity. That's part of being exclusionary.
>
> Good grief.

You're a businessman and company president, but you do not believe in your company getting the
same opportunities as others, or having the same success for the same work? Why should you have to
put out more or work harder for the same level of success others can enjoy? Why should just some
Japanese businesspeople and companies enjoy cozy ties with Japanese government even in these
trying times?

> Given the lack of time remaining (the whole expo set up was a complete
> and utter ballsup until Toyota got on board), is personal view is this:
> As far as the overall expo and the oz pavilion organisers are concerned,
> they should specify that the only language permitted at all until March
> next year is Japanese in the case of the expo and English in the case of
> the pavilion. There is *no* time left for translation.

OK, it's a ballsup. Now that you are here, do you have any comments on the Japanese construction
industry or the practice of dango in general?

> >>The impracticalities for me are irrelevant.
> >
> > Is your financial situation which you joke about, also irrelevant?
>
> Absolutely.

Is this the proper attitude to have for business? Do your employees and other stakeholders feel
the same? I had my wife's approval before choosing my job, setting my work hours, and deciding my
(our) level of income.

> That website is basically window dressing, apparently by some low life
> hammock dwelling gaigin who left Japan after loosing at least 2 nickels.

Which is what the original poster pointed out before others jumped him, and what I also know about
such situations in Japan, even as I have experienced or witnessed them from the Japanese side.

> The specs have to be in Japanese, the vast number of people who the
> winning tender will need to communicate with will almost all be
> Japanese, and the bloody thing starts in less than 15 months. Apart from
> Toyota's pavilion (lots of cool French dudes) there will be hardly a
> gaigin anywhere until immediately before the event (kind of like the
> number of non-Germans on site in Hanover prior to the last expo).

Some world expo.

> (And try doing business with Toyota in Japan without Japanese.....)

Is it different from Mazda which operates in English? Is Toyota too proud of their own success and
reputation? But then since coming to Japan, I've heard the down side of their famed just in time
system. For their own convenience with their money, indeed.

> They could have saved themselves a lot of time and trouble not hosting
> the damn thing in the first place.

Which is similar to what the original poster and I said last night.

> There used to be a nice little forest up there.

Love those Japanese construction industry practices.

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