6. Case Study

Issues may be categorized over the cases in two stances (adjustment, strategic) and three types of action (active, reactive, proactive), some seeking operational approval in the Japanese market, whereas others (sometimes the same) offering more strategic and environment-shaping perspectives. Attempts to reactively modify or block laws or regulatory initiatives are also present, hence allowing the whole range of possible CPA stances to be covered.

From the perspective of the Balance of Coalition tool, the most important observation that can be made is that, despite the priority given to firms as individual, pure individual CPA is rare or limited to certain issues. This is also in line with a general feature of CPA, that is, being extremely local in its implementation, not easily transferable or globally manageable, although the general process can be understood as universal. The necessity of a local partner is reinforced by the liability of foreignness: to gain interest from a local politician, a local constituent must be implied, and this is often done by the Japanese clients of foreign firms who will benefit from the CPA actions and are the best lobbyists.

The Balance of Influence tool indicates that most of the cases are situated on the persuasion rather than pressure side. Widely shared phantasms and prejudices in many cultures are that CPA and lobbying are about pressure and money. When asked about the phenomenon, many people tend to imagine bribery and almighty multinational companies leading the world from under the surface in a perfect illustration of conspiracy theory.