Manny Tries Squeeze Play for Yosemite

For connoisseurs of Nipponophobia, I recommend the tapes and transcripts from last week’s debate over Yosemite and Matsushita. If nothing else, it proves one thing: When you want Japan-bashing done right, get the U.S. government to do it. These guys can bash with the best.

You will recall that electronics giant Matsushita sealed its deal for MCA in the waning hours of 1990 and so acquired the Yosemite Park & Curry Co., a subsidiary of MCA and operator of hotels, golf courses and pony rides inside the national park.

Before the ink was dry on the MCA deal, Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan Jr. was offering his opinions on this development to anyone who would listen. “Happy New Year!” he told the Washington Post. “A Japanese company now owns exclusive rights to do business in Yosemite.”

This wit and wisdom got him on Page 1 of the Post. Thus encouraged, Lujan roared off to the network talk shows, where he described Matsushita as “arrogant” (cultural aside: have you noticed that “arrogant” has replaced “sly” and “sneaky” as code words for Japanese?) and went on to swear that Yosemite would remain forever “American.”

Altogether a vintage effort, and there’s lots more if you want to look. But there is a paradox here. As Lujan well knows, there is no threat that the Japanese will serve one hot dog or operate one pony ride inside Yosemite.

The reason is simple: Matsushita pledged to disgorge the Yosemite Park & Curry Co. weeks ago, long before the MCA deal was consummated. And they further pledged to select a buyer who was 100%, red-blooded “American.”

So what, then, is this debate all about? Something very serious. Lujan and the National Park Service are trying to use a little Nipponophobia to make sure they--and not Matsushita/MCA--will control just who becomes the next owner of the Yosemite Park & Curry Co.

That control is crucial because the Park Service wants to make Yosemite the first example of a new kind of national park management. In this new age, the old-style concessionaires would be replaced with nonprofit corporations that plow revenues back into the parks. These new-agers would work as partners with the Park Service, rather than adversaries, in eliminating the tawdriness of pizza stands and T-shirt shops that now adorn everything from prime Grand Canyon viewpoints to Old Faithful.

Yosemite is the perfect place to begin, they believe, because its businesses are the most lucrative in the system and could produce millions for the park every year. Also, of course, there is the prestige of Yosemite, the main reason the Park Service already has nonprofits waiting in the wings.

But Lujan and the Park Service have a problem. They don’t have the $40 million to $100 million it would cost to buy the franchise--and therefore the control--from Matsushita/MCA. A few weeks ago they asked sweetly if M&M; would just give it to them. M&M;, not very sweetly, said no.

So Lujan decided to play the Japanese card. The idea is to make it very painful for M&M; to do anything other than cooperate. The fact that his allegations of a yellow peril are nonsensical seems to matter not a whit.

All in all, it’s a gutsy move by Lujan, the implied racism notwithstanding. Apparently it warmed the heart of that old hard-baller, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, who suggested last week that Lujan was engaged in a game of chicken with M&M.; “He raised some points that have validity,” Sununu said. “When you are in a negotiating session, sometimes you state your points very strongly.”

But the outcome remains uncertain, and there has been little movement toward a solution. Perhaps M&M;, now being Japanese and all, needs a face-saving way out of this unpleasantness. That being a possibility, I have a modest proposal to offer. It was purloined from the best back-channelers in the M&M; that I could find. Here goes:

M&M;, why not instruct the Yosemite Park & Curry Co. to borrow, say, $45 million against its hotels and other properties. Then deposit that money in the coffers of Matsushita.

At that point, the Yosemite Park & Curry Co. could be presented as a gift to an appropriate nonprofit. Debt and all. Let’s say you pick an outfit like the Yosemite Restoration Trust. I have reason to believe the Trust could handle this debt without great difficulty.

Think about it. Matsushita gets $45 million. M&M; comes out smelling sweet. Yosemite goes to loving hands.

And you never have to hear from Manny Lujan again. There are worse deals.