According to the Times online edition, a Japan-led consortium has just won a 7.5bn GBP contract to build the next generation of high-speed trains in the UK. Although some reinvestment will be done in local plants and businesses, the details of the deal are fairly unclear.
There seems to have been some serious "British jobs for British workers" trouble behind the scenes, but in terms of technology, reliability, energy-efficiency, as well as the fact that the Hitachi/Mitsubishi duo were successful exporting their trains to other countries such as for the Shanghai-Nanjing line in China, Made in Japan has won the day this time around.
As a commentator to the article pointed out, why not let the Japanese take over Network Rail and fix some of the blatant inefficiencies in the service that has bugged the UK for years? Unfortunately for the UK, the rail network in Japan benefits from (1) strong infrastructure investment in the boom years when Japan had all the money it needed (and probably more to do with pork-barrel politics than strategic policy), (2) very strong R&D development and manufacturing excellence, (3) conscientious and hardworking labour force where punctuality and polished service is a social given. Some of those things you can export (ie. #2), but social mores and colossal infrastructure projects? Doubtful the economic timing is going to help things.
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