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Japanese trains may dominate Washington metro after Hitachi joins

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The success of Japanese trains in Japan can be attributed to things other than their quality per se, like dedicated ferroconcrete rail beds for the shinkansen, meticulous maintenance of rolling stock and tracks, and so on. But of course human error can negate even the best equipment.

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Good choice!

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The new 8000-series railcars, designed to be lighter and more energy-efficient, will be built at a new Hitachi factory in the U.S. capital and are slated to be put into operation in 2025.

Four years from now. That is a very good timeline.

gary

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The new 8000-series railcars, designed to be lighter and more energy-efficient, will be built at a new Hitachi factory in the U.S. capital and are slated to be put into operation in 2025

Wait, so the factory itself will be in DC proper? How are they going to work that out? I've only been to DC once, but its not my impression of an area flush with lots of readily available greenfield real estate.

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Love Japanese trains. I could take the Shinkansen to work but prefer the local train: it accelerates at an amazing rate and runs as smooth as silk. I'd like Americans to do trains more.

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Gotta say.... great trains.

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Great news.

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So is a rail car built in the US by a Japanese company Japanese, or American? Its value will be recorded in the GDP of the US, not that of Japan. The workers who make it will be American and the plant they make it in will be on US soil. I'd argue it's an American train built to a Japanese design. Our Toyota Avalon is more American in terms of US made content and being assembled in the US than most, cough cough, "American" cars. Our Ford is made in Spain but some probably consider it an "American" vehicle.

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@Desert Tortoise

The word is GNP

it measures the output of a country's businesses located abroad.

Basically whatever a Japanese company produces in the US is recorded in Japan.

And vice-versa.

The fact a Toyota is manufactured in the US doesn't mean that Toyota becomes American.

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The word is GNP

it measures the output of a country's businesses located abroad.

Basically whatever a Japanese company produces in the US is recorded in Japan.

And vice-versa.

The fact a Toyota is manufactured in the US doesn't mean that Toyota becomes American

Incorrect on all counts. I'm an economist by training with a undergraduate and post graduate degrees. This is my bread and butter. Gross Domestic Product, GDP is the measure of the value of all products and services produced with a nation's borders for a given year. One formula for GDP is as follows:

GDP = C + I + G + (EX - IM). GDP is the sum of consumption, investment, government expenditure and net exports.

GNP is the value of a nations output of goods and services owned by the residents of that nation over a period of time, so it excludes exports. Economists are not interested in GNP because it undercounts the output of a nation, and especially so a nation that is a heavy exporter.

The value of Toyota's output from its factories in the US counts towards the GDP of the US. The nationality of the firm doing the producing is immaterial. It is where the value is produced that determines which nations GDP the value is added to. Likewise the value of the output of GM's Chinese plants counts towards the GDP of China. That is basic national income accounting. The value of anything Hitachi produces in the US is accounted for in the US GDP.

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