Thank yopu Eric. I have nothing against the Japanese at all, love the place,
but the corruption and closed-door policies make a mockery of the supposed
desire for international involvement and exchange.

And as you say, if foreign governments were the same, then Kajima would be
still building 2LDK's in Chiba.


"Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
news:3FFED764.E11B5BFF@yahoo.co.jp...
> Ryan Ginstrom wrote:
>
> > "thegoons" <thegoons@bigpond.com> wrote in message
> > news:lPzLb.3039$Wa.2434@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> >
> > You're so right! Those Japanese are just ethnocentric, aren't they?
>
> Yes, they are, particularly as the construction industry is involved. It
is
> notorious.
>
> > After all, whenever US & European governments contract out construction,
> > they provide Japanese translations of all the bid specifications and
> > whatnot, right?
>
> Maybe not, but despite any barriers which do exist, Japanese construction
> companies are allowed to succeed anyway. For example:
>
> http://www.worldbridgenews.com/links/8.asp
>
> "Kajima U.S.A., USA, 4/6/2002
> With over 160 years of experience and over 13,000 employees around the
> world, Kajima Corporation is a global leader in the design, construction
> and real estate development industries. Traded publicly on the Tokyo and
> London exchanges, Kajima reported over $16 billion in revenues in 2000
> (year ended March 31, 2000) and is ranked as the third largest global
> contractor in the world."
>
> No matter how hard Japanese may work or how good that work allegedly is,
> they aren't going to be "THIRD LARGEST global contractor in the world" if
> foreign governments behaved like the Japanese regarding construction
> contracts.
>
> http://www.jsce-int.org/Publication/CivilEng/2002/1-1.pdf
>
> "Japan's construction industry is characterized by superb technology
> without sufficient international competitiveness. Not only are personnel
> costs higher than other countries but construction works are also
> structurally high cost. Also, when Japanese technical experts go overseas,
> not only are there language difficulties but the work culture is
differents
> so it makes them less effective and when engineers that are successful
> overseas return to Japan, they have a hard time adjusting back to the
> Japanese way of business."
>
> Overseas Expansion of the Japanese Construction Technology [sic]
>
> - Kinoshita Seiya, Director, International Division for Infrastructure,
> Policy Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
>
> http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/6490.html
>
> Brian Woodall
> Japan under Construction
> Corruption, Politics, and Public Works
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Publication Date: April 1996
>
> "I would like to commend Professor Woodall for his in-depth look at the
> corrupt dango system that has plagued the public works market in Japan.
> Having spent the last ten years trying to pry open the closed Japanese
> public works market, I believe that this book lays out clearly the
> structural problems that block access for U.S. firms. I hope that this
> illuminating look at how the Japanese system operates will lead to further
> changes in Japan's public procurement system."--Senator Frank L. Murkowski
>
> "Woodall has done a wonderful job of getting behind the scenes to look at
> the preeminent sector where money flows to politicians. This is the
richest
> and most subtle analysis of this industry to appear in English."--Ezra F.
> Vogel, author of Japan as Number One
>
> "An important contribution to our knowledge of Japan. Brian Woodall has
dug
> up quite a bit of new factual information on this understudied
> industry."--Frances Rosenbluth, author of Financial Politics in
> Contemporary Japan and coauthor of Japan's Political Marketplace
>
> DESCRIPTION In 1987, Japan excluded American firms from bidding on the
> multibillion-dollar New Kansai International Airport, sparking yet another
> trade dispute between the United States and Japan. The State Department,
> Congress, and the President himself were caught up in the dispute, which
> still smolders even after Congress passed a threatening resolution to
> retaliate. Scandal after scandal--both domestic and
international--splashes
> across headlines in Japan, generating wave after wave of attempts at
> reform. Why is this industry so rife with bid-rigging, collusion, and
> pork-barrel politics? What are the political forces behind the industry?
> Brian Woodall answers these questions in this book, based on extensive
> research and over one hundred candid and revealing interviews with
> contractors, industry association officials, public works bureaucrats,
> elected politicians and aides, political party officials, journalists, and
> scholars.
>
> This inside view begins with a profile of the institutionalized system of
> bid-rigging in the public construction market. It explores the powerful
> positions of unelected bureaucrats, who are often hired by private-sector
> firms after retirement. Career politicians within the Liberal Democratic
> Party are revealed to use the construction industry to exploit party
> factions toward their own electoral ends. Recent events--the Sagawa affair
> and the massive "general contractors" (zenekon) scandal as well as the
> political reform movements that followed them--are examined in detail.
> Throughout, Brian Woodall illuminates the construction rift between Japan
> and the United States and demonstrates how international pressures were
> subverted within the shadowy domestic system.
>
> Japan Under Construction is must reading for anyone interested in Japanese
> politics, United States-Japan trade relations, and political corruption
and
> reform anywhere in the world.
>
> ABOUT THE AUTHOR
> Brian Woodall is Assistant Professor at the School of International
> Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology.
>
> --
> http://www.mercycorps.org/
> http://www.mercycorps.org/items/1398/
> http://www.mercycorps.org/mercykits.php
>
> Mercy Corps' goal in Iraq is to work with conflict-affected communities to
> meet their urgent needs while also providing a firm foundation for the
> future development of economic opportunities and civil society.
>
> Efficiency
> Over 92% of our resources go directly to humanitarian programs.
>
> Excellence
> Worth Magazine named Mercy Corps one of America's best charities.
>
> High-Value
> Every dollar you give helps us secure $12.71 in donated food and other
> supplies.
>