Word: kokusai
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Japanese have a new buzz word for this phenomenon: kokusai-ka (internationalization). Kokusai-ka refers to the host of efforts designed to deal with trade frictions, from opening the domestic market to foreigners to investing more heavily in public works, including bridges, highways and housing. The more philosophic interpret kokusai-ka as an end to Japan's historic attempt to remain separate from the world and the beginning of an opening of Japanese hearts and minds to the international community...
Given such rigid attitudes toward anything non-Japanese, many experts feel that true kokusai-ka is a long way off. "Japanese culture hasn't changed a bit," says Researcher Kato. "It still persistently keeps anybody different out." Still, Japan's gradual opening cannot be ignored. It may be fleeting, a calculated response to edgy trade partners, or it may be enduring. Perhaps when the Japanese stop identifying themselves as different from the rest of the world and start seeing themselves as part of it, kokusai-ka will truly flourish...
While many of the splashiest transactions have involved the purchase of big-city landmarks, Japanese investors havealso bought industrial parks, shopping centers, condos and hotels in several states. Nine of the 14 hotels along Waikiki Beach in Hawaii are owned by Japanese landlords. Within a month, Kokusai Jidosha, a real estate company, will close a deal to buy the Hyatt Regency on Maui from Chicago-based VMS Realty for an estimated $319 million...