"Otherwise why bother? I guess we had no idea the U.S. could be so inept. We assumed your semiconductor people, like your baseball teams, were major league."
He was right about that part. America fumbled away its lead by chasing quick profits. While MITI was playing the only way it knew how. Long term.
"I can't tell you how much I regret what's happened since," he continued, glancing occasionally at the rows of research labs gliding by on both sides of the roadway. "I now realize that a more cooperative approach would have worked to everyone's
benefit. In the long run we each need the other. Now, it's going to take plenty of cooperation to prevent the U.S. from becoming a back office for Matsuo Noda."
"You really think a big MITI move will blow the whistle?"
"Matthew, the ministry is the closest thing Japan has to a strategic deterrent. By exploiting it, I will become the Japanese Rosenberg in the eyes of many, but if I can cause a worldwide scandal, perhaps everyone here and in the U.S. will start thinking about the implications of Noda's takeover."
"Friend, you're throwing your career in front of a train." I said it with respect. "Matsuo Noda could eat us both for hors d'oeuvres."
"Us, maybe. But not MITI. At least not yet." He smiled. "You know, we Japanese have a tradition of committing ritual suicide, seppuku, to emphasize a principle. You might say I'm doing that, but it's only professional seppuku. No unseemly knives or blood on the tatami."
"I understand now why Tam feels about you the way she does."
"Matthew." He spoke quietly. "I am here, you are there. I think she needs someone she trusts, and you seem to be that person just now. Stay by her."