Different people/cultures are good at different things. The Japanese are really good at taking an existing product and making it much better in terms of quality

Different people/cultures are good at different things. The Japanese are really good at taking an existing product and making it much better in terms of quality, durability, finish, etc. However saying that the Japanese are better at everything does injustice to western society - which incidentally has had a stellar record inventing everything from cars to planes to cameras. Sure, the finish and panache of the final product may be lacking a little, but without the fierce can-do attitude and i-dont-care-for-authority attitude that is a hallmark of western society, none of these might have come to be. PS: I'm neither Japanese nor western.