Could a US runner be successful on a Japanese Corporate Running Team?

BUMP! more information please

nobby is a bad man! don't trust him!

Keeping this on the front page.

"I discovered the cause of sudden accleration...": No sir, this is not a lie. And the fact made my presence in Mazda more difficult for Mazda to handle.

In late 2005 I fell into a situation that 'accidently' revealed the cause to me - a single part was causing the entire list of problems and the part maker was asking Mazda QA people to 'blame' the vehicle troubles on customers in Venezuela and Colombia. The problem had been around for over five years already... I'd seen the field service reports.

The task given to me on that day was that I 'show' Mazda QA people how to lie to Ford that the part maker wasn't to blame. And from my own frustration with Mazda the request was not acceptable. I instead asked Mazda QA to explain a certain fact which the sales manager in charge of Venezuela had shared with me two weeks before - sales believed the cause was in the market just like you're seeing in the U.S. now. Well any person with half a brain could see that things weren't adding up - the QA story to me and the QA story to sales.

And when I said so they immediately began to panic. Only the month before having been told that my job was to irradicate bad business practices in Mazda (as ironical as it may sound) I asked if they understood the consequences of blaming the customer simply because their part maker had asked them to do so?

I expected them to fight me, as they normally did, but they didn't. Instead they said they'd speak to their division general manager about my concerns and come back to me.

They came back - and very soon after. To my astonishment they said their boss had asked me to write some questions which they'd send to the part maker. Apparantly they had had enough - for about five years the part had been giving them hell. I wrote the questions for them and a day or two later they came back, very angry, but not at me. They told me that the part maker had "confessed about the thing that was causing the vehicles to act like Frankenstein" - their words.

I was knocked senseless! Every vehicle fitted with the part was a potential killer, they said, quoting the part maker, and added that the part maker wanted to know who had figured it out and how because they said if anybody in the market was ever to figure it out their company would be shut down. Upon hearing that I realized what was going to happen. But before that they went on to fully disclose the cause of the phenomenon which leads to vehicle malfunctions such as those you're reading about today.

And what you may ask has this got to do with my own problem with Mazda? A lot.

The internal audit report for the vehicle failures noted that my initiative to call the part maker in for questioning had led to the part maker confessing the flaw and as a result caused the part maker considerable damage and loss of face in Mazda but in the same breathe they went on to say I had saved the company a wad of troubles and money - you figure out what that was supposed to mean especially in a situation in which people were dying. And Mazda sided with the part maker. I had initiated a way of doing business that was not acceptable they said. The part maker is responsible for all field quality trouble shooting if their part is suspected of having a problem Mazda told me. Regardless of how we feel the part maker can never be troubled with such suspicions...

If you understood the nature of Japanese business relations you'd understand why they'd be upset at me. A memo labelled "Strictly Confidential" was sent by the chief auditor to the general manager in charge of my division. It said, "Brian is the most dangerous man in this company... You must be very careful about what he is exposed to..." sic

The sales people were instructed to never ask me about that particular vehicle problem again. Please note that 2005 was a very scary year for Mazda in regards to my issue because I was becoming assertive in my demands for a quick settlement of the unpaid money. And the auditor who wrote the memo regarding my danger to the company was the former Legal Department general manager - Mr. Ito's boss. Mr. Ito was the person who had confessed (in 2004) about knowing well before I came to Mazda that Mazda intended to dishonor the contract from the day it was signed. Being a close-knit company it didn't take long before people were betraying each other - while they plotted about what to do with me, documents that supposedly didn't exist - documents that proved that I was telling the truth all along started to be given to me by HR people... they'd just drop in on me at my desk and say "Here, this is for you, if you need help call this number..."

I'd say the only help I need is for you to speak out about my issue. Not a single person did. Instead they only said they were helping me out of respect and gratitude for what I'd done for the company and them. For example what I asked. Vehicle repair charges they told me.

Up until the when the cause of sudden acceleration was understood in Mazda the Mazda people whose vehicles had experienced strange phenomenon were paying for the recommended repairs. And to make matters worse they were not exactly willing buyers of those cars to begin with - the company had pressed them into buying the cars. Adding to that many workers had persuaded their loved ones into buying the vehicles also so one can understand the anger upon realizing that their own company had lied in blaming the vehicle problems on the owners.

Then in 2008 I happened to be involved in more work in which a direct reference to the problem of sudden accleration was clearly written - by the part maker, and the fact that it was only through the power of prayer that nobody on the outside was aware of its cause.

In fact the very last contact I had with Glen Latimer was in asking if there was anyway I could reveal my knowledge to someone capable of putting it to good use. He was very gracious in giving me an appropriate name and address. But unfortunately the person simply didn't want to hear about it. On January 27, 2010 I had an e-mail sent to the White House. Nothing came of it. Automotive News (Tokyo office) will tell you that in 2005 I wrote to tell them that Toyota would be reeling in recalls... that was based on the part makers admission. The editor-in-chief told me he was returning to the US and that was it....

No sir, I'm absolutely telling the truth. The cause is very easy to imagine if you understand the concept that lies behind drive, break, and fly-by-wire.

What is interesting is that so often you have people that feel they know the culture of a country because of a few visits. In this case someone like Latimer who has met a few people and traveled to a few events becomes a know it all.

Nobby is a kiss ass wanting to do right , to be in the good graces of whoever he is working with in Japan. He see's himself as a US expert.

Drive by experts. They mean well , dont know very well.

Car problem ? This is easy , tell a class action law firm , they will make Mazda spin like a top.

Has Nobby posted on the board at all since he said he was going to talk to someone about it?

If not I think his absence is certainly an admission of guilt.

Bump.

Nobby isn't on these boards much any more, and the thread was quiet for years before 2 weeks ago. Don't criticize him for doing something other than surfing the web for the last two weeks.

I am mystified by people wondering about whether Nobby, or indeed anyone else, 'leaked' a letsrun thread to Mazda. Anything anyone posts here is completely out there for all to see, and it's pretty clear Brian Sheriff knew this - and was hoping to get some facts out in the open - when he first told his story.

Nobby insinuated in his message that he was going to help Brian. If you have read any of the follow up reports you will find that things have been harder on Brian since, and Mazda has been coming down on him much harder because of the post.

I beliebe Nobby has switched sides, many others believe Nobby was simply lying and was going to go against Brian all along.

I was not criticizing Nobby for not being on the board, he posts rather actively on here most times. I was simply stating that his disappearance may have something to do with the fact that he is afraid of being rediculed because of his change of allegiance.

Its a free country here in the U.S. we are certainly allowed to speculate.

Also, the more light this thread sees and the more knowledge is spread around the more likely Brian is going to be helped in someway and this catastrophic contract issue will hopefully be able to be put in his past. I dont see what is wrong with wanting to see a runner helped out. I am sorry if this thread brought to light that Nobby may not be the knight in shining armour you always dreamed of. Maybe there is still hope that you can be the Rapunzel of his dreams though?

Nobby was in contact with Brian after that older thread appeared here. That was quite some time ago. He and I talked about Brian's situation but nothing about the situation was really clear and even if it something was clear, it's not the sort of thing that should be paraded around on a message board. I don't really understand how anything on that blog gets Nobby connected to all of this anyway.

But there are three things about Nobby and this situation that everyone should understand. The first is that Nobby's chances of being helpful to Brian are not a given. He's not lived in Japan for over twenty years and while he's stayed in contact with loads of people in the Japanese running world, he's not connected to their corporate world. Realistically, if Brian's been done out of nearly a million dollars by a corporation that's dead set against paying him I doubt that anyone not conencted to that corporation or perhaps to the Japanese government is going to shake that money loose.

Another is that he's deeply involved with the Lydiard Foundation and especially with the business of getting their Interactive Training Program up and running. That's been a bear of a project and extremely time consuming. It doesn't leave much time for anything else.

A third is that he does not come to these boards much at all anymore and that has nothing to do with Brian's situation. On top of that, he's been away for the Christmas holidays with very little Internet access. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he has no idea that this thread is around.

I have read the whole thread. It seems that the bad guys in Mazda, not surprisingly, started to get pissed off once the story was out. Whether they heard about the letsrun thread because Nobby had a word with someone at Rikuren (which was exactly what he said he'd do), or because

If everything Mr. Sheriff says is true, I wonder what options are open to him? Being stateless must make it very difficult.

Nobby was commenting on the Decker/ Budd thread today, so obviously he is around.

He checks from time to time but not regularly. I would imagine he's back to the world of Net access by now.

just read the thread and blog, very intriguing stuff. Wejo/Rojo need to start pulling some strings and get some backing behind Brian. If he has the documents in question, a little bit of steam should get this moving.

Wejo/Rojo have pull ? Probably not.

The only thing that will get the attention of Mazda is getting sued in the public arena and a global push not to buy their cars until something is done for Brian.

Maybe Dick Patrick can get something in USA Today.

Start a blog outside of this running world thing that reaches a mass audience.

Let the world know.

Contact the Human Rights Organization.

Maybe get a PR agency in NYC to do some pro bono work to bring visibility to Brian's plight.

Thank you all for your concern.

Please allow me to say what happened after Nobby said he'd do something if I could provide evidence:

Nobby e-mailed me to say he would be in Tokyo for some business and he'd be able to help me by talking with the appropriate people. He instructed me to send some proof of my claims. He also asked me to wait for his call - he set a time. I did as he asked and waited for his call. It never came. Instead Mazda came to me.

Mazda sent someone to tell me not to go home at 5:45 because they wanted to talk to me about my contract. The man who came to call me was the former running club manager so you can imagine how excited I was - finally they've decided to pay me I thought. But the meeting room wasn't anywhere near the regular meeting facilities. In fact it was in a place refered to as the dungeons. On entering the room the first thing they told me was the meeting never took place. I didn't suspect anything sinister accepting that they were probably trying to hide their shame over what they'd done to me. Was I wrong!

They immediately asked if I was familiar with Let's Run.com

I laughed and said so this is what this is all about? What's your take on my post then, you're going to deny it? They said, if you cannot prove your allegations we'll sue you.

At that point the GM in my division said, "My duty is to let you go if you're proven to be bringing the company's name into disrepute..."

I said fairs fair... but which of my comments are false?

They handed a large printout of the Let's Run.com thread. And said okay here's what you said and we're going to debunk it.

And gave me a copy and asked me to follow them as they started to read out my comments - note that they'd listed each item in numbered form from one to twenty.

This was in June 2006.

I looked at the paper and immediately something struck me as odd. Somebody had helped them.

You can't imagine this but I wasn't scared in the least bit. There was absolutely nothing to be afraid of - everything I'd posted was fact and I had documented evidence to prove it.

Can you guess what they asked me to prove? Out of all the stuff I mentioned in my post they only wanted to sue me because I said the contract was for 10 million yen, net, per annum - not after taxes.

"We never said, "NET"," they argued. "We said including taxes. If you cannot find anything that proves we were to pay you net then we'll sue you..."

I laughed. It seemed like a joke. But they were serious.

My GM asked me if I had any document to show. I told him I had the IAAF TACTrust papers - they clearly state that any contract between a corporation and an amateur athlete must be based on the sole principle of Net Payment through a one time per annum payment into an IAAF regulated trust fund and paid before the first year of any contracted year. And I said that's the only way the JAAF could allow a contract for me with Mazda. Besides the Visa is issued only under IAAF/JAAF rules...

We were still under the TACTrust system at the time, hence my seeking TAC and Bank of Boulder approval to enter into the aggreement with Mazda. I'll explain later what 'TAC' did after I sent a complaint about Mazda and an enguiry about my amateur status when Mazda failed to send the money on time - within the first ten days of the year.

Mazda abruptly ended the meeting and told me they'd talk to me the following Friday.

On our way out the GM asked me to look for other evidence. I told him that my last Reebok contract - the one Mazda had gotten me out of, clearly showed the terms under which I could leave Reebok, the only terms under which Mazda could acquire my services from Reebok before the Reebok deal came to an end. And they were (under Massachussetts law) that the offer made for my rights by Mazda to Reebok could not be reduced in anyway once Reebok had failed to match or better the offer. The offer made to me through a bona fide offer from Mazda to Reebok was 10 million net under the IAAF TACTrust system.

The GM said show it to us next week.

I contacted Nobby to let him know that somebody had not only informed Mazda about the post but had isolated items which could be used to take legal action against me. If you all remember my comments I refered to gangsters being used to plant porno in my desk, threats, witnesses to the fraud confessing to me, Mazda internal papers being given to me to prove my case etc...

None of that was shown on the printout they used in the inquisition. Not a single item I mentioned was on the document Mazda was trying to sue me with!

I gave names, dates and places but everything simply didn't get on to the record.

So in the second meeting I asked the GM if he knew about the public accusations I'd made. He was stunned and asked the HR man leading the questioning. He side-stepped the question.

I told him if you don't ask about my claims of gangsters etc. I'm going to have the police enter this company.

He side-stepped that too. I asked if he was given the printout by Nobby... he simply said he considered the person who gave them the tip-off to be a friend.

Adding that Japanese don't like it when other Japanese are insulted.

I e-mailed Nobby to tell him Mazda were harrassing me. And he asked me to provide more evidence about my claims.

In the second meeting I pointed out the Reebok contract.

They said we never saw it - but I showed them a copy which had been taken out of their file and given to me the previous year. They side-stepped that too and quickly ended the meeting by telling me that I had another week to save myself - "prove that we entered into a contract with you in August 1991 or else. If you have no document that proves that we will not be able to help you if some of the workers should decide to take vigilante action against you.

They were threatening me again.

The GM walked out of the meeting room with me telling me that he was now having some doubt about the HR position. I showed him the original Let's Run.com post with all the allegations. He was furious!

He couldn't believe that not a single part of it had been reported to them (senior management) in a meeting that had been called by HR to explain the evil I had committed against the company.

When I passed by my desk to pick-up some stuff I found a pile of documents with a little note saying, "For you".

On the train I was going closely through one of the papers - it was the first time I'd ever seen it. And to my surprise it was a document I had been demanding for fourteen years. It was my bonus contract negotiated together with my contract. Mazda had kept telling me they'd give it to me but never did. SO I had nothing to go by in making my claims for race insentives and performance bonuses. All the money I'd earned through performances hadn't been paid - they were telling me to provide the contract first.

I flipped to the second page and it hit me! There it was. Unmistakeable proof. Mazda had entered into a contract with me in August 1991. And this was in a document written by Mazda.

I was shaking... when I took it to my wife she said what's wrong? I asked her to read the official letter Mazda had written to me the year before. She said they say if you can prove you signed any form of contract with Mazda in August 1991 they'll pay you all the money you say they owe you - saying that according to Mazda that would prove that any other document Mazda is going by now is fraudulent. But Mazda have the Japanese legal system on their side - they won't help you regardless of your evidence against Mazda. But if you were to find any document written by Mazda that proves that Mazda did enter into an agreement with you in August 1991 then according to the Mazda letter you'll get your money beacuse then you'd be able to sue Mazda in the US with that proof. I was trembling. I must let Nobby know this I said to her. And I did.

Mazda acknowledges the 10 million yen contract agreement but then do a lot of funny things to the sum, breaking it down into crazy explanations which end up with you getting zero, all the people in Mazda began to tell me. Get help in the US.

But for years I've been unable to get help in the US. When I reported to TAC in 1992 this is what happened:

Mazda received a letter signed by Mr.O Cassel - anybody remember him?

The letter was typical of what I've been going through - another 'shakedown' of Mazda by someone I'd sought help from. The letter was a direct request to Mazda to take management of the international Mazda Track Club away from IMG and hand it over to Alvin Chriss, an Indianaplois based attorney who was directly representing the TAC. This was in 1992.

Mazda wasted no time in gloating about beating me. They even gave me a copy of the letter - which I still have. I couldn't imagine why TAC would do such a thing. I reported the fact to Craig Masbeck in person before he became head of TAC. I told him that TAC was corrupt and needed an honest person at the top. Craig may recall talking with me and Eammon Coghlin in Central Park after Trevira...

The bonus contract was dated 1993.

The date is particularly agonising for me in that it is two years after the contract which Mazda have steadfastly claimed not to exist. And the document says that the bonus contract is made under the terms of the contract signed in August 1991.

SO Mazda, while telling me that my contract didn't exist, were making a new contract based on the terms of that so-called non-existent contract, a contract for which they were now trying to sue me for claiming its existance.

I shared the fact with Nobby - he wanted to know he said so that he could prove that not all Japanese were crooked. I obliged.

On August 2, 2006 I entered into the fourth meeting with Mazda HR. Before they could say a word I asked the head man if he could recognise the document in my hand - the bonus contract. He quickly identified it, "Yeah, that's your bonus contract. I know. We made it for you."

I said, "But you've been refusing to give it to me. You've been telling me it doesn't exist...

He just said, "It's not our obligation to give you a document you will use to make a claim against the company...

I screamed at him, "This is my bloody right to have! You make a contract with me you hand over the contract to me. It's the law.

To my surprise he said, "Japanese law doesn't represent you.

Trembling I asked him to turn to the second page and read what it said.

He did and simply said, "Oh your original contract signed in August 1991 - we have it. In fact I have a copy right here.

He opened his file and took it out.

The other HR people just sat in shock - saying nothing.

I then demanded he hand it to me. He hesitated and I began to shout that he hand it over or I would rip it out of his hands. He gave it to me. I turned to the date:

It said, July 31 1991.

Mine was signed August 19 1991.

It was a fake.

I looked at the money.

It said 7 million yen in one time payment per year and 4 million yen over twelve months. The total was for 11 million yen.

My claim was for 10 million. This was even bigger than what I was claiming.

The Mazda signer's signature was clearly forged. Mine was too.

I shared this fact with Nobby. And that was the last time I heard from him.

Mazda HR began holding daily meetings with the company's top management - including Ford. They then called me to a room to tell me something. They brought no less than nine people into the room simply to tell me that I had to leave the company. I asked why they needed so many people for such a simple task. They just looked down and didn't reply.

So there you have it. Yes indeed, Nobby did work with Mazda. What his actual motive was I believe only he can say. I had believed that he was trying to save the honor of his country but in fact according to Mazda I was not part of Nobby's interest. Mazda's reputation was. Again only Nobby can explain or deny that. The facts are that I fed the revelations from the meetings to him. I proved to Nobby beyond any doubt that Mazda orchestrated an international scheme to traffic me from the US. I proved to him that Mazda clearly violated my human and civil rights. I proved to him that Mazda fraudulently ended my association with Reebok. And how did he respond? His computer went dead on him. This for a man who had called me stupid for being cheated by Mazda... I wish him well.

Tokyo Runner: I've just read your two year old post. This is Brian. The contract refered to in your post sounds identical to the one I entered into with Mazda. The only difference is that I would train in teh US and visit Japan only for the ten races I'd contracted for. In fact the release for races required by Athletics Canada falls in line with my claims that the contracts foreign runners could enter into with Japanese teams were strictly IAAF/JAAF - not Japan Industrial League as Mazda tried to say after I'd arrived in Japan. The reason being the Japanese law recognised track as an amateur sport - going by the Japan Olympic Committee's rules.

All expenses were to be borne by the Japanese company. I was charged for everything by Mazda yet even their fake contracts said Mazda would pay.

Thanks for sharing your comment with us. Incidently my contract was discussed with a Canadian couple who had run for a construction company based in Ibaraki prefecture. Their names have slipped my mind but if they're reading this I hope they can remember me. The lady's name was Sue if memory serves me right.

Brian,

With all due respect to your plight and with full acknowledgement that Nobby is a close friend of mine, I have to say that I don't see anything in your post which proves that Nobby worked for Mazda in any sense. I proves that he did tell you he'd look into the situation but that doesn't prove he worked for Mazda, although it's possible that once he asked around he saw the situation differently than you're presenting it. I will ask him and will e-mail you privately if I learn anything new.

Rich Englehart

Brian only said he suspects Nobby sided with Mazda. He then gives reason why he suspects.

Nobby can refute his claims. He hasn't yet though.