Yes, customer-supplier relationships between Japanese companies are intriging. Japanese customers are usually loyal to their Japanese supplier and Japanese suppliers are totally committed to their Japanese customers. Many people wonder why Japanese companies are always buying from Japanese suppliers even when prices are not as competitive. There is a intangible aspect of Japanese business relationship: loyalty and commitment, even beyond the written contracts.
I have worked as sales for a Japanese company and also have served Japanese customers. I get a glimpse the working relationship between Japanese companies. I had a Jap customer who runs a process but outsource some of the production volume to another Jap company due to capacity & technology constraints. Sometimes they feedback that the service they receive are as good or even better than their own process. I believe there are similar working relationship between Nikon and Sony, and I think Nikon do not lose out in terms of support even when they do not produce their own sensors.
I remember that there was once when Sony transfer a CRT product from Japan to Singapore, their supplier actually set up a Singapore factory just to support the manufacturing of this product.
Customer-supplier relationship is treated seriously in Japanese company. I have had a Japanese sales director who was so pissed with Intel because they stop buying from us, he stop us from buying PC with Intel processors. So, for the next few years, all our new PC comes with AMD processors.:bsmilie: Although it did not do much to Intel sales, this is the attitude Japanese have wrt customer-supplier relationship.
BC