Japanese Investment and British Trade Unionism (eBook)

This book revisits the long contested negotiation between the Thatcher administration and Nissan for the latter's first green-field plant in Europe. From the very beginning, the plant took Britain's EC/EU membership and tariff-free access to the single market as a token. A considerable amount of aid including component supplies was provided to attract Japanese investment and to prevent its transfer to the continent. The successful launch of Sunderland highlighted improved Anglo-Japanese relations and put an end to the Japan-EC/EU trade conflict. But the price was paid by Nissan's slump and fall, and by trade unions in both countries failing to keep counterchecks on management. Brexit and the fall of Carlos Ghosn were a double blow to Anglo-Japanese relations which are in a state of drift and need redefinition.


Hitoshi Suzuki is Deputy Director of the Economic Partnership Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan. He has written articles on Japan-EU trade including, 'The new politics of trade: EU-Japan' and a Japanese monograph, Thatcher and the Nissan Sunderland Plant. He was Associate Professor at the University of Niigata Prefecture and has been Visiting Fellow at the Monash European and EU Centre and the Department of International History, LSE.

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This book revisits the long contested negotiation between the Thatcher administration and Nissan for the latter's first green-field plant in Europe. From the very beginning, the plant took Britain's EC/EU membership and tariff-free access to the single market as a token. A considerable amount of aid including component supplies was provided to attract Japanese investment and to prevent its transfer to the continent. The successful launch of Sunderland highlighted improved Anglo-Japanese relations and put an end to the Japan-EC/EU trade conflict. But the price was paid by Nissan's slump and fall, and by trade unions in both countries failing to keep counterchecks on management. Brexit and the fall of Carlos Ghosn were a double blow to Anglo-Japanese relations which are in a state of drift and need redefinition.