Belgium/Japan: The "Belgium-Japan Association" (BJA), the Belgian-Japanese Chamber of Commerce, has published a work that gives a selection of 20 Japanese successes in Belgium, selected from 60 candidatures. It is entitled: "The Experience of Twenty Japanese Companies in Belgium". Japan is currently the second investor in Belgium after the United States: some 240 Japanese companies have gained a footing in Belgium since 1958, the cumulated value of their investments reaching over $3 billion in 1999. According to this study, the Japanese are on the whole pleased with their investments, the way their companies are working and their living conditions. They place special emphasis on the quality of accommodation, communications and transport, the environment and the wealth and diversity of cultural life. Nonetheless, the Nippon businessmen deplore the many obstacles to their investments in Belgium, the most common criticism being the extreme slowness of administrative procedures, the incredible complexity of the levels of political power, the heavy taxation burden and the high costs of social security, the recent and worrying development of crime and insecurity. The average rate of taxation (47%) is considered too high for Japanese expatriates.