Abstract
Sunderland’s operations proceeded before the schedule in fulfilling British local contents and accordingly exporting to the continent. The launch was a success and achieved its first turnover in 1991, gaining British manufacturer status from the SMMT the same year. While maintaining Britain’s largest car exporter status, it failed to reach its maximum annual output throughout the 1990s. Due to its financial difficulties back home Nissan sought to reduce assembly costs, rather than reaching the maximum output, which brought Primera’s local contents up to 90%. It was the new ruler Carlos Ghosn who boosted the output and immediately achieved the goal. But his arrival was paid harder in Sunderland than in Japan. British local contents were replaced by those of Renault, the prospect of hard-Brexit merely adding to uncertainty than improvement.
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Notes
- 1.
Shioji, 2012, p. 399.
- 2.
Currently, the site also accommodates a plant producing lithium batteries for electric vehicles with NEC.
- 3.
Shioji, 2012, p. 400.
- 4.
Ibid., pp. 15, 467–471. In his memoirs, Shioji recalled Ludwig Erhard, German minister of economy, and his visit to Japan in 1957 as forming the basis of trade unionism for him. Asked from the audience for advice on the Japanese economy, the minister answered that Japan should focus on increasing consumers’ income and improving living standards as an engine for further economic growth. Then, and still, according to Shioji, Japan was a “queer country,” compared to European countries because it prioritised corporate interests and industrial advances while paying little attention to living standards and working conditions.
- 5.
See the last section of the previous chapter.
- 6.
Hitoshi Suzuki, “The New Politics of Trade: EU-Japan,” Journal of European Integration, 39(7), 2017a, pp. 875–889.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Industrial Journal, 1994, p. 281.
- 9.
Industrial Journal, 1998, pp. 275–276.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
See Sect. 8 in Chapter 4.
- 12.
Ibid. Instead of this solution, the Micra was made into the Renault Clio’s sister model under a decision by Carlos Ghosn. See the next section.
- 13.
Industrial Journal, 2000, p. 209.
- 14.
Hanawa testified that Nissan had negotiated with Renault from the beginning, and the negotiation with Mercedes-Benz was solely about Nissan Trucks; http://www.nissan-global.com/JP/HERITAGE/LEGENDS/LEGEND_10/index.html. Accessed on 21 August 2017. Inoue reported that the negotiations terminated due to Mercedes requiring all Nissan executives to resign before signing the merger, at which Hanawa went into a rage and rejected the proposal; Hisao Inoue, “A thought on the death of a Nissan executive and Nissan’s ‘real disease’” (hitori no moto-kanbu no shi kara kangaeta Nissan no ‘honto no byousou’)” 11 September 2019. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/inouehisao/20190911-00142201/. Accessed on 8 October 2019.
- 15.
Sato, 2012, p. 20. See also Sect. 5 in Chapter 4.
- 16.
Uesugi, 2001, pp. 4–5.
- 17.
Industrial Journal, 1996, p. 307.
- 18.
Industrial Journal, 2000, p. 275.
- 19.
Industrial Journal, 1998, p. 269.
- 20.
Industrial Journal, 2002, p. 209.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Ibid, p. 214.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
See Sect. 8 in Chapter 5.
- 28.
Industrial Journal, 2002, p. 214.
- 29.
Liam Proud, Reuters, 20 November 2018.
- 30.
Jiji.com, “Comparison of Nissan and Renault’s performance, May 2019 (Nissan to Renault gyouseki hikaku,” 18 May 2019. https://www.jiji.com/jc/graphics?p=ve_eco_car20190518j-04-w490. Accessed on 8 October 2019.
- 31.
Liam Proud, Reuters, 20 November 2018.
- 32.
Jiji-tsushin, 29 September 2016.
- 33.
BBC, 5 September 2016. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37270372. Accessed on 8 June 2019.
- 34.
Asahi-shinbun, 24 June 2016.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
Reuters, 24 June 2016.
- 38.
Mainichi-shinbun, 24 June 2016.
- 39.
Ibid.
- 40.
Ibid.
- 41.
BBC, 5 September 2016. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37270372. Accessed on 8 June 2019; Sankei-shinbun, 6 September 2016. Ambassador Tsuruoka was formerly in charge of the TPP negotiations.
- 42.
Jiji-tsushin, 29 September 2016.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
Jiji-tsushin, 5 February 2019.
- 45.
Industrial Journal, Nissan; Group Activity of 2018, Nagoya: IRC, 2018, p. 554.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Jiji-tsushin, 9 February 2017.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
Suzuki, 2017a, p. 885.
- 50.
Jiji-tsushin, 22 January 2019.
- 51.
Jiji-tsushin, 11 March 2019.
- 52.
Ibid.
- 53.
Jiji-tsushin, 22 January 2019; Jiji-tsushin, 20 January 2019.
- 54.
Jiji-tsushin, 1 March 2018.
- 55.
Jiji-tsushin, 7 March 2019.
- 56.
Jiji-tsushin, 20 February 2019.
- 57.
Ibid.
- 58.
Jiji-tsushin, 5 February 2019.
- 59.
Jiji-tsushin, 6 March 2019.
- 60.
See Sect. 1 of this chapter.
- 61.
This was once considered during the early 1990s. See Sect. 1 of this chapter.
- 62.
Industrial Journal, Nissan; Group Activity of 2018, Nagoya: IRC, 2018, p. 553.
- 63.
Ibid, p. 558.
- 64.
Ibid.
- 65.
Ibid, p. 559.
- 66.
Ibid, p. 558.
- 67.
Ibid.
- 68.
Jiji-tsushin, 23 November 2018.
- 69.
Not a single word of criticism on the scandals could be found on the unions’ home pages. https://nissan-workers-union.or.jp/, http://www.ngu.or.jp/. Accessed on 5 November 2019.
- 70.
Bloomberg, 19 February 2019.
- 71.
Ibid.; SankeiBiz, 20 February 2019. Four-door saloon Civics were assembled in the US, while five-door hatchbacks were assembled in Swindon. Honda’s decision to close Swindon hints that it would assemble whatever version it can in the US to circumvent the tariffs reimposed by Donald Trump. In this case, Britain is potentially the (worst) loser in the tariff wars between the EU and the US.
- 72.
Jiji-tsushin, 19 February 2019.
- 73.
Ibid.
- 74.
Ibid.
- 75.
SankeiBiz, 20 February 2019.
- 76.
Bloomberg, 19 February 2019.
- 77.
BBC News, “Honda: Is Japan Losing Faith in the UK?” 19 February 2019.
- 78.
Jiji-tsushin, 7 March 2019.
- 79.
BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-48784175/brexit-japanese-foreign-minister-warns-against-no-deal. Accessed on 2 July.
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Suzuki, H. (2020). Epilogue. In: Japanese Investment and British Trade Unionism. New Directions in East Asian History. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9058-0_7
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