The unceremonious ending of several major public works projects by the recently elected Democratic Party of Japan has been a big change in a country where projects historically are never cancelled once they’ve received an official blessing. The policy changes highlight another big cultural difference between Japan and the U.S., too: the lack of litigation as way of redressing issues between parties. While no one may be a fan of lawsuits, they do have their place in a free society, allowing individuals and groups to seek redress when they feel they’ve been wronged in some way, and if these changes were happening in the U.S., some legal challenges would certainly be filed. So far I’ve seen only one case of a Japanese company threatening legal action: Fuji Heavy Industries is demanding compensation from the government for agreeing to buy 62 Apache helicopters then actually only ordering ten of them.
Fuji Heavy Industries licensed the Apache from Boeing but only sold ten of them.
