Eastern promise
Here's a good way to kick off an interview with the Imperial Japanese Representative in Poland: Did you know that the Founder of the Nation, Marshal Józef Piłsudski, was almost certainly a Japanese spy, recruited after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905? That he was probably hired after he went to Japan to see his brother, Bronisław, who had found his way there after springing himself from one of the czar's Siberian gulags? And it was that, as much as anything else, which the czar's secret police had against the old walrus when he, too, ended up in the cooler.
Well, His Excellency Hideaki Ueda, the Ambassador to Warsaw for the last two years and eight months, did not tell us any of these interesting snippets. We found out by asking around, in a preliminary search for connections between these two, theoretically dissimilar, nations. And we considered, as we made our way across Łazienki Park to the almost new embassy, how the Japanese have excited previously undiscovered taste buds nestling on the local palate by means of regular stimulation with sushi. And of course, there was unquestionably this year's tour de force, the visit of the Imperial couple.
Once inside this crisp and pleasing addition to the capital's stock of modern buildings (architects note: the one who did this job had recoverd from bad atrium disease and understands functional use of space), we find the delightfully informal ambassador ready to introduce some other pleasing associations in this special relationship. Not only does Warsaw University have an exceptionally capable department of Japanese language and culture, but so does the Jagiellonian in Kraków and then Poznań University as well. The quality of teaching is such that next July, Warsaw will host a vast international symposium on Japanese culture.
This is a useful introduction to how the Japanese are settling down here. The answer, it would appear, is very well. There is positive delight that Japanese investors can dip into any one of these three universities and fish out, in the ambassador's words, "bright and intelligent graduates for whom Japanese is their second or third language after German or English." Nor do they find problems with the workforce. "Good workers are retrained and promoted," he says. "They are hard working. We don't have any problems with our workers or any strikes." Some even go to Japan to be trained.
Japan did not rush into Poland. Some say this was the traditional "let's see how the others mess it up, and we'll learn from their mistakes" approach typified with the national business mentality. His Excellency says it was more mundane. The start of the reforms simply coincided with the busting of the great Japanese bubble in the early 1990s and the long 10-year recession. He beams a confessional smile and says: "We were not in such good shape."
It's a different story now. There are 15 manufacturing facilities here, nine of them automobile-related, the other six in a spread of activities from banking to batteries. Five more are in the pipeline. Investment, which had reached ?600 million, is set to top a billion next year. Nice money. And it's all quality input. There's also a good spread around the country: Bridgestone making tyres (and handy to VW) in Poznań, Takata-Petri churning out car components in Wałbrzych, Matsushita with 670 workers making manganese batteries in Gniezno. The ambassador is very proud of Toyota's new engine plant, which will also go to Wałbrzych. But he conceded it had taken Nippon some time to warm to Poland.
"The first of Japan's investment in Central Europe was Hungary; now it's about ?1.5 billion there, and then the Czech Republic, where it is now almost one billion," the ambassador says. "The reason is that both the Hungarians and the Czechs are closer to the Austrian and German infrastructure, meaning fast autobahn networks, modern railways, good electric supply." Also, the other Central Europeans were more competent multilingually and went to great lengths to attract Japanese firms. The eyes of readers at the Polish Agency for Foreign Investment should rivet upon the following words: "These countries were so eager to attract FDI, they provide one-stop shopping which attracts foreign investors with their offices in Tokyo," he says. Heresy! Poland should actually go out and look for business as other countries do? Unthinkable, even deplorable. One can hear the newspapers rustling down there at PAIZ. Whatever next? They'll be asking commercial officers in Polish embassies to act as business recruitment agents? We all remember how skillfully expertly - trained bureaucrats torpedoed the Toyota-Peugeot deal.
There were image problems, too. The appearance of Poland among Japanese businessmen had been "grey, socialistic, with lazy people." (Still with us there at PAIZ?) The ambassador answers his own rhetorical question - "So why did they come here if they had such negative stereotypes?" The answer was that Hungary and the Czech Republic had more or less reached saturation point. "The labour costs in those countries have increased, and it wasn't that easy to find for Japan qualified workers apart from in Poland." It had been refreshing to discover that having got down to work initially around automobiles, and drawing on the country's many years of experience in making them, the positive aspects had won out. "But," sighs His Excellency, "such a big country with no freeways - well, it doesn't really make sense."
Now that they are well and truly in, where are the sticking points? Anything to do with cars, of course. The Japanese are (wisely) disturbed by some of the EU's intents in the rush to the east, in particular the future of the Special Economic Zones, whose (Japanese) inhabitants were promised alluring tax reliefs - which now upsets the competition policemen in Brussels. The tax reduction promises should still be made to mean something, "some kind of subsidies that will help us invest here more readily. Mr. Miller stated that he is working on an agreement that will help increase our investments here, but I'm not sure if it will work out."
The Business Journal observes that the government's negotiating position in Brussels is akin to that of a condemned man staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.
Customs duties are also irksome, and they, too, have an EU flavour.
"We are afraid of customs duties," the ambassador says. "When Poland joins the EU there will be the same customs duties as the rest of the EU's members, while for us the customs duty rate will be raised. After Poland joins the EU we want to be treated as equal investors. I believe this will happen when all the American, Korean and other firms will raise their voices." The embassy is not having, at the moment, much luck in getting its point across, which is not an encouraging indicator for the future.
The words "level playing field," which will be a major EU import to Poland, are unfortunately almost worn out with excessive use before they get here. The government doesn't like them anyway, which is why it has not one, but two taxes on car imports - the big one which the Japanese importers pay, and the variable one the Americans have negotiated to let in big American limousines at a favourable rate (equals lower rate of duty for luxury buyers - funny old thing for a supposedly socialist government to do) on the grounds "they are considered goods unavailable in the European market." Tell that to Jaguar, Mercedes, Audi, etc.
His Excellency, a man of infinite patience, draws a diplomatic sigh.
"That's why we have protested now to the Polish government, but the Polish side is ignoring our request," he says. Clearly, the visit of the Imperial couple really did make a huge impact on Miller & Company, after all.
The ambassador is from northern Japan: "I was born facing Vladivostok," and he speaks of more common experiences, those of the island nation Japan and often embattled Poland, existing in the lee of great giants, including the shared one of Russia. China was Germany to Japan. He has been out of Japan more or less constantly, at the command of the Emperor, since 1967. He thinks more needs to be done to develop entertainment and diversions here for foreign investors. Fortunately, there is relaxation of a suitable kind to be found on most Saturday mornings at Warsaw's (only) golf course. He and his wife are fond of the countryside and paint and draw landscapes together. It is an endearing picture, confirmed by co-incidence later the very same evening when the Business Journal, bidden to the opening of the Radisson Hotel, finds His Excellency and his very graceful wife at ease among the guests, a number of whom they gather at their table until a late and enjoyable hour. There is a great deal of laughter around them.
Style. The capital needs it. The Business Journal smiles upon it.
Well, His Excellency Hideaki Ueda, the Ambassador to Warsaw for the last two years and eight months, did not tell us any of these interesting snippets. We found out by asking around, in a preliminary search for connections between these two, theoretically dissimilar, nations. And we considered, as we made our way across Łazienki Park to the almost new embassy, how the Japanese have excited previously undiscovered taste buds nestling on the local palate by means of regular stimulation with sushi. And of course, there was unquestionably this year's tour de force, the visit of the Imperial couple.
Once inside this crisp and pleasing addition to the capital's stock of modern buildings (architects note: the one who did this job had recoverd from bad atrium disease and understands functional use of space), we find the delightfully informal ambassador ready to introduce some other pleasing associations in this special relationship. Not only does Warsaw University have an exceptionally capable department of Japanese language and culture, but so does the Jagiellonian in Kraków and then Poznań University as well. The quality of teaching is such that next July, Warsaw will host a vast international symposium on Japanese culture.
This is a useful introduction to how the Japanese are settling down here. The answer, it would appear, is very well. There is positive delight that Japanese investors can dip into any one of these three universities and fish out, in the ambassador's words, "bright and intelligent graduates for whom Japanese is their second or third language after German or English." Nor do they find problems with the workforce. "Good workers are retrained and promoted," he says. "They are hard working. We don't have any problems with our workers or any strikes." Some even go to Japan to be trained.
Japan did not rush into Poland. Some say this was the traditional "let's see how the others mess it up, and we'll learn from their mistakes" approach typified with the national business mentality. His Excellency says it was more mundane. The start of the reforms simply coincided with the busting of the great Japanese bubble in the early 1990s and the long 10-year recession. He beams a confessional smile and says: "We were not in such good shape."
It's a different story now. There are 15 manufacturing facilities here, nine of them automobile-related, the other six in a spread of activities from banking to batteries. Five more are in the pipeline. Investment, which had reached ?600 million, is set to top a billion next year. Nice money. And it's all quality input. There's also a good spread around the country: Bridgestone making tyres (and handy to VW) in Poznań, Takata-Petri churning out car components in Wałbrzych, Matsushita with 670 workers making manganese batteries in Gniezno. The ambassador is very proud of Toyota's new engine plant, which will also go to Wałbrzych. But he conceded it had taken Nippon some time to warm to Poland.
"The first of Japan's investment in Central Europe was Hungary; now it's about ?1.5 billion there, and then the Czech Republic, where it is now almost one billion," the ambassador says. "The reason is that both the Hungarians and the Czechs are closer to the Austrian and German infrastructure, meaning fast autobahn networks, modern railways, good electric supply." Also, the other Central Europeans were more competent multilingually and went to great lengths to attract Japanese firms. The eyes of readers at the Polish Agency for Foreign Investment should rivet upon the following words: "These countries were so eager to attract FDI, they provide one-stop shopping which attracts foreign investors with their offices in Tokyo," he says. Heresy! Poland should actually go out and look for business as other countries do? Unthinkable, even deplorable. One can hear the newspapers rustling down there at PAIZ. Whatever next? They'll be asking commercial officers in Polish embassies to act as business recruitment agents? We all remember how skillfully expertly - trained bureaucrats torpedoed the Toyota-Peugeot deal.
There were image problems, too. The appearance of Poland among Japanese businessmen had been "grey, socialistic, with lazy people." (Still with us there at PAIZ?) The ambassador answers his own rhetorical question - "So why did they come here if they had such negative stereotypes?" The answer was that Hungary and the Czech Republic had more or less reached saturation point. "The labour costs in those countries have increased, and it wasn't that easy to find for Japan qualified workers apart from in Poland." It had been refreshing to discover that having got down to work initially around automobiles, and drawing on the country's many years of experience in making them, the positive aspects had won out. "But," sighs His Excellency, "such a big country with no freeways - well, it doesn't really make sense."
Now that they are well and truly in, where are the sticking points? Anything to do with cars, of course. The Japanese are (wisely) disturbed by some of the EU's intents in the rush to the east, in particular the future of the Special Economic Zones, whose (Japanese) inhabitants were promised alluring tax reliefs - which now upsets the competition policemen in Brussels. The tax reduction promises should still be made to mean something, "some kind of subsidies that will help us invest here more readily. Mr. Miller stated that he is working on an agreement that will help increase our investments here, but I'm not sure if it will work out."
The Business Journal observes that the government's negotiating position in Brussels is akin to that of a condemned man staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.
Customs duties are also irksome, and they, too, have an EU flavour.
"We are afraid of customs duties," the ambassador says. "When Poland joins the EU there will be the same customs duties as the rest of the EU's members, while for us the customs duty rate will be raised. After Poland joins the EU we want to be treated as equal investors. I believe this will happen when all the American, Korean and other firms will raise their voices." The embassy is not having, at the moment, much luck in getting its point across, which is not an encouraging indicator for the future.
The words "level playing field," which will be a major EU import to Poland, are unfortunately almost worn out with excessive use before they get here. The government doesn't like them anyway, which is why it has not one, but two taxes on car imports - the big one which the Japanese importers pay, and the variable one the Americans have negotiated to let in big American limousines at a favourable rate (equals lower rate of duty for luxury buyers - funny old thing for a supposedly socialist government to do) on the grounds "they are considered goods unavailable in the European market." Tell that to Jaguar, Mercedes, Audi, etc.
His Excellency, a man of infinite patience, draws a diplomatic sigh.
"That's why we have protested now to the Polish government, but the Polish side is ignoring our request," he says. Clearly, the visit of the Imperial couple really did make a huge impact on Miller & Company, after all.
The ambassador is from northern Japan: "I was born facing Vladivostok," and he speaks of more common experiences, those of the island nation Japan and often embattled Poland, existing in the lee of great giants, including the shared one of Russia. China was Germany to Japan. He has been out of Japan more or less constantly, at the command of the Emperor, since 1967. He thinks more needs to be done to develop entertainment and diversions here for foreign investors. Fortunately, there is relaxation of a suitable kind to be found on most Saturday mornings at Warsaw's (only) golf course. He and his wife are fond of the countryside and paint and draw landscapes together. It is an endearing picture, confirmed by co-incidence later the very same evening when the Business Journal, bidden to the opening of the Radisson Hotel, finds His Excellency and his very graceful wife at ease among the guests, a number of whom they gather at their table until a late and enjoyable hour. There is a great deal of laughter around them.
Style. The capital needs it. The Business Journal smiles upon it.
