Footnote [48]:
During this period, I was a consultant to the Japanese Ministry for International Trade and Industry (MITI). MITI was a strong rival to the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). MITI was in favor of liberalization of telecommunications policies. However, even though MITI wanted to express their view to U.S. government, all of their messages had to be sent through the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This subsequently leaked out the messages to the MPT. So, MITI wanted to have a channel which could convey their messages to the U.S. government without going through normal governmental channel. This was why I was their consultant.