The Saga Of Brian Sheriff - Part Three

You might be wondering how Mazda became aware of Brian's allegations which led to his dismissal from the company anyway. Well, Brian is not sure but says heavy suspicion falls on Nobby Hashizume of Arthur Lydiard Foundation who had offered to help on the message board thread. "I believe he took it personally as an insult. When I sent him the proof he never responded. He had asked me to provide evidence...After 18 years here I am in a position to tell anybody anywhere to never ever trust a Japanese. I have enough experience from countless situations to tell you that there is no honor in the Japanese vis a vis contracts. There is an amazing desire to cheat on every deal they enter into with foreigners. There is never another side to the story - it's always their side. Even after they see the evidence of fraud by a Japanese against a foreigner they will convince the foreigner is wrong."

I had contacted Nobby for a comment on Brian's situation and in a lengthy voicemail message, basically explained that "cultural differences" were to blame. My calls for a follow up were not returned. 

In one of his emails, Brian had compared his case to those of  former MLB manager Bobby Valentine, who was coaching in Japan, and MLB pitcher Jeremy Powell who had a major contract snafu when he ended up contracted to two teams. Looking into their stories, you get an idea of the Japanese attitude to contracts. From an article in the Japan Times on the Jeremy Powell story:

Best-selling author Robert Whiting, who has seen his share of these disagreements during his long association with Japan, claims culture is usually at the root of the dispute.
"Japanese have looser attitudes toward contracts than Americans," Whiting points out. "They place emphasis on verbal agreement, personal relationships, one's sincerity and the likelihood the situation that exists at the start of the deal will likely change.
"For Americans, a contract is written in stone. For Japanese, it is just a guideline toward a future relationship that is constantly evolving. You are expected to operate in good faith, but what's expected is often vague."

"In the US people think I am making stuff up. The expatriates in Japan also thought the same about me but the Bobby V story last year shocked them into realizing that I'd been telling the truth all along." 

Brian is now married to Yasumi, a local girl he met when he first arrived in Japan. "Coincidently her boss was the Mr. Ito of Mazda legal who told me that he was fully aware of the intent to defraud. He asked me to ask my wife to complain on my behalf. She is so afraid because as a former Mazda HR staff she has seen what they're capable of doing. She actually couldn't believe I'd not been paid because she saw the paperwork before I arrived. A moment ago I told her about Glenn's words and she was stunned." Together they have two sons - 8 and 3 and Brian says after the marrige Mazda stopped their "direct gangster threats" towards him. 

"The Japanese attitude to contracts holds true but only when it's them changing stuff to suit themselves. However if the change is suggested by the foreigner they go ape on you! In Japan they have two kinds of contracts - the one executed under Japanese law and the one negotiated abroad. The latter is usually respected line by line. That's the part causing such problems for any legal assistance. The foreign deal is considered very dangerous especially in that any scandal will reflect negatively on the entire lot...

Bobby Valentine got that attention across to the establishment through media respected expatriates. The result was the ball team didn't go bating him...I have tried to retain a lawyer but nothing... nobody has ever replied. In Japan I was told by the vice-president of the Hiroshima bar association to just take 3 million yen from Mazda and go. Mazda then bragged to me that they had bought him too. Did you see the IAAF reply to me?"

Brian had written me and forwarded the IAAF email he received. It shows they were not keen to provide him any assistance, and he says corruption within is the reason.

From: Pierre Weiss <pierre@hq.iaaf.org>
Subject: FW: Feedback On About iaaf
To: "brianshrff@yahoo.com" <brianshrff@yahoo.com>
Cc: "Anne-Marie Garrigan" <anne-marie.garrigan@hq.iaaf.org>
Date: Monday, April 13, 2009, 11:03 PM

Dear Sir,

 

It took us some time to reply to your email of March 15^th. Indeed

-          You refer to the fact that this message “is the fourth letter I have written to you since 2007”: we looked in our registration system and we did not find any earlier correspondence
-          It looks that they fact that you are critiquing are old by more than 15 years. Why did not react earlier ?
-          IAAF is here to help athletes who are in trouble, but these athletes have first to follow the IAAF rules. When you moved from Zimbabwe to Japan in the 90s, you were supposed to have the IAAF authorisation! We conducted research and we did not find any such agreement. Either you got it and this case, send us a copy. Or you did not ask for this authorisation, and your move was illegal ... so don’t ask now for IAAF support !
-          You speak also about “an IAAF sanctioned contract with the Mazda Track Club”: this is also new to us. Send us a copy please.

 

To conclude: it looks that without further information, facts and proofs, there is nothing that we can do for you.

 

Best regards

 

Pierre Weiss

IAAF General Secretary

"This is the official - only response to date, from the IAAF top. The tone is so unbelieveably cold. I had all the items he mentioned. I wrote back to tell him just that and cited that his predecessor - Mr. John Holt, had personally made contact with me when my country denied me the right to compete in the world champs in 1987. I also mentioned that I had sought and obtained the specific written clearance of both the US and Zimbabwean athletic governing bodies. I had even obtained the required bank and IRS clearance to move large sums of money into the US from Japan. In fact I added that I was introduced to the IAAF secretary general who is now the head of the organisation when I finished 3rd in the Tokyo Marathon in 1993 - an illegal transfer I certainly was not. Guess what? I have never heard from the IAAF again. After providing the proof they sought they walked away from me. Mr. Weiss wrote that none of my other letters were found. I can hardly agree with that because I had specifically spelt out that Mazda had waved to me a letter which they had written to the IAAF to promise sponsorship of IAAF events in return for ignoring any claims I may raise in future. And that was before I'd asked the IAAF to intervene. I had told Mazda that the JAAF had advised me to contact the IAAF. But to protect myself from any charges of violating the terms of the contract regarding contract dispute I had told Mazda of my intention to contact the IAAF.
Mr Weiss is definitely not telling the truth about Mazda, the IAAF and myself in regards to how I came to be in Japan and what transpired there after. The bigger story is IAAF corruption. They sold me in return for cash from Mazda."

  

"My hope is that I can get people abroad to directly write the Japanese - Mazda, Media, Government etc." Brian says. "Bobby Valentine got that attention across to the establishment through media respected expatriates. The result was the ball team didn't go bating him....until your interest in me after all these years I had begun to feel better off dead. Honest, I have constantly contemplated suicide."

 A fourth and final installment will follow in a day or two. Thanks for reading.

  And if you're behind, please read Part One and Part Two.