Still a comparison of the US case with the UK is interesting, because part of the reason Japanese multinationals were welcomed in the latter, I read, was they were expected to change the system of industrial relations.

It might be that the British (government and managers) sensed that they had more problems with industrial relations, the unions, and productivity, than the Americans. On the other hand, if greenfield Japanese foreign investment in manufacturing tended to concentrate in "Sunbelt" areas, it could be seen as a way to circumvent the power of organized labor, similar to the UK.

But, of couse, there is quite a difference in the amount of FDI (even if UK is the largest recipient of FDI in Europe), and that should have affected pubic sentiment, as pointed out by Prof. Cambell

Nobuhiro Hiwatari