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Japanese Government Raids Intel Tokyo Offices
mordicus writes "Reuters
is reporting that Japanese Trade Officials have raided Intel's Japan Offices. From the article:
'Japan's fair trade watchdog raided the offices of Intel Corp's Japanese unit on
Thursday and a government source in Tokyo said the chip giant is suspected of violating
antitrust laws.' Japan seems to be rather vigilant in enforcing its antitrust legislation. Microsoft's Japanese unit was target of a
similar operation
less than two months ago."
Microsoft last month, Intel now.
So, who's for the chop in May then?
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
What's their reasoning, I wonder? They think Intel is stealing processor stuff from Nintendo?
It's hard to declare Intel a monopoly (which is has to be if you are going to accuse it of monopolistic practices) when the latest numbers I've seen show AMD at 12% of the market and climbing, prior to this "invasion".
Well, at least they have been against American companies.
The Japanese merely enjoy "raiding" things. Look at China, for example.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think they might have chosen a more descriptive word for what happened? When I think of a raid, I think of things like a drug bust where they bang down the door and come in with guns drawn. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling this "raid" was more like some guys in suits showing up and demanding to speak with certain people and look at certain files, etc. Then again, Intel does hire some sneaky folk, and you never know if they have a stockpile of BFG-9000's in the back room waiting for the FTC to come.
Needless to say, calling it a "raid" gives the wrong impression (to me).
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And in other related news: Microsft, SCO and the RIAA have teamed up to counter this threat by sucking up all of the countries legal and technical resources in a frivolous and long-term legal battle. On a more serious side, it is about time a country gets tough on this subject. My biggest fear is that Japan will not be able to counter these international economic threats. The U.S. government was not even powerful enough to take on Microsoft. Their best bet is to cooperate in the Asian market with OpenSource. Have you ever seen or used Asian versions of Microsoft products? They are even worse than the American counterparts. It is no wonder they are feeling a bit angry. My prediction is that the Asian market is going to give BIG Corporate American business a big surprise in coming years.
Unfortunately, many countries are not in the same position to aggravate or turn down Western business, even if in the medium and long run they lose in the deal. For many "third world" countries, short-term existence (and political graft) are the only thing on the radar.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Japan seems to be rather vigilant in enforcing its antitrust legislation.
Considering that Microsoft has probably been breaking antitrust laws for 10+ years, I wouldn't call this "vigilant".
I think that it is refreshing to see some trustbusting and pricefixing countermeasures in our cosey little global economy.
you know, more than just obvious corporate welfare, subsidies and pandering. At least the Japanese look after their own a little.
From all of the recent /. stories, I imagine a lot of japanese robots doing the raiding...
That or I watch too much anime. Probably a bit of both.
You are wrong if you think any American company is going to march into Japan and tell the Japanese how to run their business. Very wrong!
The Japanese are known for protecting their own, at any cost, from non-Japanese threats. To say such protectionism a cornerstone of their culture is an understatement. Chances are that Intel tried to go John Wayne* on their Japanese suppliers/distributors, and they replied to the threat in their own special way: Using Tokyo to respond for them.
* - Being an American currently living in Japan, I can say that acting American in a Japanese Business setting is like walking upto the plate, in baseball, with 2 strikes against you.
No-knock raids have been going on in America for quite some time to combat those crazy marijuana and crack users. It's about time that other countries pick up on the value of no-knock raids in taking down corporations that violate anti-trust laws. Had it gone down American-style, someone would have ended up dead.
Sony is like the Microsoft of Japan. Billboards dominate the streets. They certainly dominate the media and the advertising dollar there. Interesting how they would "raid" a US company who, to me, seems no more guilty than the dominant player there. It also lends creedance to revenge - seeing as Sony recently made a HUGE order of Transmeta Chips and didn't go with intel version of the ARM processor.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
IIRC, japan takes it's crime very seriously, compared to say.. the US (disclaimer: I'm a native of the USA). Criminals move with the expectation of being caught, because the cops in Japan are highly efficient, work selflessly, etc etc. I hear some figure about how criminals in Japan have a 80-90% chance of being caught, where as in the US, it's more like 20-30%.
Is it still that way?
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
If a Japanese company had a position in the US markets as dominant as Microsoft or Intel, I imagine you'd see some action from DC.
You can't believe this is in the interest of fair trade, not in Japan, where business has the government firmly wrapped around its little finger? Surely you don't believe this was not at the behest of griping japanese electronics manufacturers who have had a difficult time competing with Intel on their home turf. This is the country that dumped consumer electronics and automobiles on the world, subsidized by taxing their own citizens. This is the country that negotiated hardball and grudgingly every millimeter of trade concessions for years.
When Japan, Inc. does things we like, like make handheld devices with Linux embedded, we applaud. When they do things we're less thrilled, we overlook. Japan, Inc. makes some damn fine stuff, but don't confuse that with government-industrial policies.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Antitrust laws are not only used against monopolies (which means it is already too late in some way), but also for anti-competitive behaviour.
It is best for the consumer if all those backroom deals and exclusive contracts disappear and the consumer has the free choice. That would be a concept, wouldn't it?
...of other nations, Japan makes no secret of the fact that they are a highly nationalistic country, and that they will do whatever it takes to protect their markets. Most other western industrialised nations are more fragmented and disingenous about it. Japan since WW2 and their rebuilding, sees economics as just another form of warfare basically, and acvts accordingly. They are polite about it, but ruthless. They are also really up the creek with the yen and the dollar, and are exploring different ways to ease the burden of supporting a still grossly over valued dollar. They have too many investments tied to it, but realise they needed major serious diversification like years ago, and are in max overdrive to rectify what to them is a national economic disaster in the making if it's not addressed past the lip service level. Same thing in the US, just we have.... stupider central bankers. They thought that they could keep pushing funny bux forever, like no one would ever notice. another subject there, but that is happening as well.
There's probably also a lot of other internal political action (politics=money, like any other place) going on around this, but I don't follow their internal affairs adequately enough to comment on it to any significant degree.
As an aside,I am also highly surprised that in this day and age that *any* intel chips get used in Japan.
it could be that microsoft ratted intel out for leniency....u know...the wintel issue from back in the day, before AMD became as big a contender as they are now; to the point that AMD now dictates what's in the X86-64 extension instruction set, etc. (even the rumor mill is spewing out that Intel will implement some of those extensions for some of their 32bit P4's later on)
(which is has to be if you are going to accuse it of monopolistic practices)
Says who? You can have monopolistic practices without being a monopoly. Isn't that what everybody has been saying about Microsoft all these years?
According to Columbia Guide to Standard American English the -istic suffix means:
"in imitation of" or "having some characteristics of,"
It is best for the consumer if all those backroom deals and exclusive contracts disappear and the consumer has the free choice. That would be a concept, wouldn't it?
I think you'll find the land of the Zaibatsu wrote the book on backroom dealing.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
japan vigilent
intel antitrust frolicks
ruined by truncheon
Intel and Microsoft? They need to raid a case maker, a hard drive maker, a video card maker and a motherboard maker and they'll be all set to play Half-Life 2 at the precinct. ;)
And its laws. American companies get away with far more than they should here. It wouldn't be surprising that they think the rest of the world is just as forgiving. For a company like Sony that has been created in Japan, they know what they can and cannot do inside and out. It makes sense that Japanese companies are not being busted, they probably all realise how harsh it can really be if they mess up. It's a learning lesson American companies will have to learn quickly. Ever wonder why the XBox has done so bad in Japan? It's because Microsoft cant get the leverage they can in other countries without breaking a metric ton of laws. Microsoft in turn has slammed Japan over and over saying they dont need them, etc .. While doing this, they've pretty much lost all respect for any Japanese developers jumping on the XBox2 ship. They've doomed their console hopes because they finally have to play fair somewhere and it bit them in the ass.
I wish AMD was the only processor manufacturer in the world, then everyone could only buy processors that are high quality for a low price.
I wonder if the price of AMD would be so good if they would be a monopoly ...
I still like choices. Let AMD and Intel and maybe some more companies compete. This creates innovation and good prices
Read the book "intel Inside". The insider account of the culture of fear and paranoia fostered at Intel, with propaganda posters on the wall about how "it's nice to work at Intel", constant employee surveillance, the Randall Schwartz of Perl fame lawsuit, etc etc.
It's Orwellian nature makes it perfectly suited for Japanese culture. Should be a slam dunk. Except, as another slashdotter pointed out, the profits are rolling back to Andy Grove and his clan. The Intellies probably cut some deal with Taiwan and a Japanese company lost out, and before you know it, the offices are being raided.
With Intel's culture, a government raid is the biggest kick in the balls you could deliver. Start going through computer files and the network there, and people would be flipping out. What if they uncovered the AMD sabotage plot?
I haven't heard of this book, but may have to check it out. One of my oldest friends works there, we grew up together (in our 30's now). I was just out visiting him, and I have to tell you that Intel seems like a nice place to work. He gets very nice stock options. He has been getting decent to very good bonuses for the last 7 years. After 7 years, they get a sabattical - 3 months paid time off, plus his vacation for the year. He gets to telecommute 1 day a week, as does most of the other people he works with. They have a very casual attire policy.
He said their policy is to always compensate their employees better than the industry average, and much better than the industry average during times when the economy is bad. Which is much better than where I work now, where I am consistently reminded that "I am lucky to even have a job." But he is a quality control engineer, I am a software guy. I know this guy, and he wouldn't bullshit me. He really loves his job at Intel.
Now that says nothing about their business practices. He did say they are very careful about trade secrets, and there is this feel that people are watching you. But Intel does have trade secrets that a lot of people would like to steal.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Mind you, we don't know if they're targeting japanese companies as well. This is news over here just because there're a american company involved. If there were a japanese company involved it wouldn't be news over, would it?
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I hear some figure about how criminals in Japan have a 80-90% chance of being caught, where as in the US, it's more like 20-30%.
No, Japan's about on par with the US there--in fact there've been news reports lamenting how the Japanese rate of catching criminals is "down" to 20% lately. The 80-90% figure is your chance of getting convicted if they take you to trial, and that's mostly because the police don't bring charges unless they're more or less certain they can convict you. (Even if you show up at the police station and confess to a crime, the standard procedure goes something like: confession --> interrogation --> confirm details --> okay, now we arrest you.)