At 01:26 PM 1/2/06 -0800, Peter K. wrote: > >Your comment on Mitsubishi is >partiall true but the reality is that Nikon, and also Asahi (Pentax), are >members of the Mitsubishi International and NOT owned. This is basically a >Japanese association and described as follows: Peter This is so much idle bull-puckey. Forty years ago, the head of the Byrd Machine here in Virginia, "Big Harry" Byrd, used to deny that there was any such thing as the "Byrd Machine" but would simply chuckle and claim that "we are just a bunch of like-minded gentlemen". This is the same ficiton Mitsubishi and the other daibatsu propose, but it is a lie in both cases. The Japanese economy was essentially run by six large mega-coirporations prior to and during hte Second World War. The Alllied Control Commission attempted to break these up completely but the Japanese dragged their heels to the point that they were still in effective existence by the time the Korean War broke out. At that point, the UN forces needed the Japanese as a logistics base, so a face-saving compromise was created under which the myth of "coöperative" companies became the order of the day. That doesn't stop the fact that these companies are all controlled by Mitsubishi and that various international groups from the UN to the OECD have been attempting for years to crack them up completely. Japan has an anti-trust law which is so crude and powerless that it would embarrass a colony of cherrystone clams. The significant reality is that every Monday morning, the CEO's of the subordinate companies, such as Nikon, call on the CEO of Mitsubishi at HIS office to report to him and to receive their marching orders. Do a Google search for "zaibatsu" and see where it leads. Avoid Nikon and Mitsubishi sites as they simply regurgitate the tired falsehoods that "we're all just friends". Note, incidentally, that when Nikon started having huge financial problems in the early 1990's, their longevity was directly linked to the willingness of Mitsubishi to absorb their losses, hardly the action of a "coöperating" business but very much of the sort of way in which Daimler-Benz treated Mercedes at the same time. Marc msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir! NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505 --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list