Gerhard Fasol" <fasol@eurotechnology.com> writes:
> I'll try to comment a little.
> [snip] ..reasons driving Japanese business decisions may sometimes be
different
> than western people may think.
>
> DoCoMo's Head Tachikawa commented publicly, that he wanted to partner
> with KPN, because it was the 400th anniversary of Dutch-Japanese
relations.
> This cannot be the only reason for a big investment, but it's not a joke
Having a little trouble with this one, sorry. Just because it is not a joke
doesn't make it, in itself, a serious reason.
After all, if this were only year 398 of Dutch-Japanese relations,
would Tachikawa-san have considered it a possible reason to wait
a year or so? I like it as a headline: "Numerology Tanks DoCoMo
Europe Initiative." But it strains belief, given the business potential.
I think it could be anniversary 444 and DoCoMo would still bite.
The only real reason to mention such a quadricentennial publicly in
an announcement like this is that it would be a slight breach of
protocol NOT to, in such a national-level tie-up. It certainly
costs nothing, and sets a certain ceremonial tone.
Now, Tachikawa *might* have been alluding to the usefulness
of the Dutch in keeping other European powers out of Japan's
territories, at an early point in the relationship. That, I'd buy.
Michael Turner
www.idiom.com/~turner
leap@gol.com
Received on Sun Aug 20 05:58:11 2000