n in his "Jump-Start America" campaign. He claims to haveenlisted a total of 175 firms with 60,000 workers to offer similarincentives. This is nothing new to the Japanese though, where this has beengoing on for a long time. For example, Mitsubishi and other corporategroups, called keiretsu have the power to order employees to wage personalwarfare on the commercial brands of a rival. A common story was of a groupof Japanese men that walk into a bar and shout "Biru" (Beer). The bartenderoffers them Asahi Beer, a common brand but they shout, "Were Kirin men!".The Kirin men are literally that - employees of any one of the 148companies associated with the Mitsubishi group, which controls Kirin.Americans are running scared now, and you probably did not need thisessay to tell you that - and Japan is aware of this. So now opinion isgrowing in Japan in favour of an almost revolutionary idea - to back off.Corporations should raise prices, pay workers more for fewer hours anddistribute fatter dividends. This came after the President of Sony made aspeech saying that Americans will not take much more of the way theJapanese are competing with them. They should in short then, become morelike their western rivals. Already change is afoot in Japan's mostcompetitive industries. Since January, the two biggest auto companies,Toyota and Nissan, have said that they would raise vehicle prices andlengthen new product cycles from four to five years. Similar moves weremade by consumer electronics giants such as Sony and Matsu*censored*a. All thesechanges would benefit foreign competitors worn down by the back-breakingpace of the Japanese.There have been some problems inside Japan as well that are hurtingAmerican companies. For the last while, The Nikkei stock average has beenfalling (See Graph #1) and Japan is in the beginning of a recession whichis getting deeper and deeper although nowhere near as severe as theAmerican recession. When domestic economic weaknes...
