Reply #3: You're right on the money. [View All]

Japanese business and government is precipitated on bribery, so much so that it's not even considered to be anything to get upset about. The Asian traditon of gift-giving has been hijacked by the unscrupulous and the powerful, so that no deal can be finalised without a mindboggling amount of under-the-table money changing hands.

Many years ago, my father was Chief of Construction for Micronesia. He was responsible for a number of large public works projects (airports, dams, sewage systems, etc). There were inevitably a large number of bidders for these contracts, many from Japan and Korea. Even though I was young, I clearly remember the dozens of deliverymen who brought gift after gift to the door of our house. These gifts were from the companies bidding for contracts, and were often worth tens of thousands of dollars. My father later assured me that he turned all the gifts over to the Congress of Micronesia, but I am still amazed at how much a normal part of doing business such bribes were.

Seems little has changed.