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The reason why there is an impression that Japan is more technically advanced is due to the high quality electronics that used to be produced in the 80s, 90s an

The reason why there is an impression that Japan is more technically advanced is due to the high quality electronics that used to be produced in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. If I bought a Panasonic, Sony or similar people knew it would work well and you wasn't wasting your money. It isn't some sort of exoticism of the East. They were making high quality products that worked very well. For many people my age, the Japanese seemed to be ahead technologically because all the cool consumer electronics, game consoles etc were coming from their when I was a child.

jbay808 5y ago
Also because of a tendency for them to release their best products as Japan-only. "Galapagos phones" are a good example. When I visited in 2009, they were still much more capable devices than the then-available iPhone. But by being unavailable outside Japan, they had no hope of winning global market share.
- emteycz 5y ago
  In what ways was it better than a Sony Ericsson?
  - jbay808 5y ago
    It's hard to describe; there were so many of them and I can't find much if anything left on the English internet that describes them. They were very diverse; some would have large screens that unfold or rotate after flipping open to create a widescreen-on-a-keyboard-stick, for example. They were high enough resolution to support two simultaneous side-by-side channels of streaming video, which people would watch on the train. Sounds normal today but it was bizarre to see back then. The manufacturers thought the domestic market was big enough for them. In a way that protected foreign markets and allowed less mature smartphones to develop internationally until they were good enough and "cool" enough to take over Japan too. Oops. I see this happen again and again, too, not only with phones.
mc32 5y ago
Also due to their tendency for miniaturization whereas euro and more so North American products were bulkier —for electronics at least.
karmakurtisaani 5y ago
Japan seems to have ended up like what people in the 80s imagined world would look like in the year 2000. Faxes, robots that look like humans but aren't that capable, etc. One thing that is great about Japan though is that they design things to last as opposed to planned obsolescence that we so much like here in the West.
- ezconnect 5y ago
  You should see their houses, it is designed for obsolescence.
  - ryan_lane 5y ago
    This is mostly not true anymore. Houses designed in the last 10-15 years are mostly built to last, especially in the cities.
jabroni_salad 5y ago
Not only was their stuff cool, but it was also more reliable. In that time period, we had to deal with the "capacitor plague" infesting every manufacturer with low-grade components if they didn't keep a close eye on their supply chain or willingly pay extra for the good stuff. Japan is really big on 'Made in Japan' and mostly managed to avoid that.
ksec 5y ago
It's funny. The group of people that do not use quality in their marketing are the Japanese. You never see them using quality in their marketing. It's only the American companies that do. And yet if you ask people on the street, which products have the best reputation for quality, they will tell you the Japanese products. Now, why is that? How could that be? The answer is because customers don't form their opinions on quality from marketing. They don't form their opinions on quality from who won the Deming Award, or who won the Baldrige Award. They form their opinions on quality from their own experience with the products or the services. One can spend enormous amounts of money on quality. One can win every quality award there is. And yet if your products don't live up to it, customers will not keep that opinion for long in their minds. So, where we have to start is with our products and our services, not with our marketing department. We need to get back to the basics and go improve our products and services. - Steve Jobs
cdavid 5y ago
They also radically transformed the landscape around semiconductors in the 60ies/70ies. E.g. a big section of the famed "high output management" from Andy Grove is about how Intel had to reinvent itself under the pressure of Japanese chip makers and Intel could not compete with them. I never read a compelling explanation as to why Japanese companies started struggling w/ innovation from mid 90ies until now.
- syntheweave 5y ago
  Demographics. The late 20th century rise of Japan tracks with their post-war generation; the institutions built then, centered around MITI, were very strong and propelled the country into a leading exporter, and then an asset bubble economy. With the 90's, the bubble collapsed and globalization took hold, moving the industral exports increasingly towards China. But, as with the other major powers involved in the war, the institutions of the postwar largely stayed in place. The bubble then reappeared elsewhere in Asia, and then in US real estate, and eventually(where we are now) became called the "Everything Bubble", where all of these countries have a zombie company issue and a corresponding lack of creative destruction. Japan was simply the earliest to experience the demographic effects leading into this cycle; they are ahead on aging, population decline, etc.
glandium 5y ago
Back then "made in Japan" was a stamp of quality, and "made in Taiwan" denoted crap.

jbay808 5y ago

Also because of a tendency for them to release their best products as Japan-only. "Galapagos phones" are a good example. When I visited in 2009, they were still much more capable devices than the then-available iPhone. But by being unavailable outside Japan, they had no hope of winning global market share.

emteycz 5y ago
In what ways was it better than a Sony Ericsson?
- jbay808 5y ago
  It's hard to describe; there were so many of them and I can't find much if anything left on the English internet that describes them. They were very diverse; some would have large screens that unfold or rotate after flipping open to create a widescreen-on-a-keyboard-stick, for example. They were high enough resolution to support two simultaneous side-by-side channels of streaming video, which people would watch on the train. Sounds normal today but it was bizarre to see back then. The manufacturers thought the domestic market was big enough for them. In a way that protected foreign markets and allowed less mature smartphones to develop internationally until they were good enough and "cool" enough to take over Japan too. Oops. I see this happen again and again, too, not only with phones.

mc32 5y ago

Also due to their tendency for miniaturization whereas euro and more so North American products were bulkier —for electronics at least.

karmakurtisaani 5y ago

Japan seems to have ended up like what people in the 80s imagined world would look like in the year 2000. Faxes, robots that look like humans but aren't that capable, etc. One thing that is great about Japan though is that they design things to last as opposed to planned obsolescence that we so much like here in the West.

ezconnect 5y ago
You should see their houses, it is designed for obsolescence.
- ryan_lane 5y ago
  This is mostly not true anymore. Houses designed in the last 10-15 years are mostly built to last, especially in the cities.

jabroni_salad 5y ago

Not only was their stuff cool, but it was also more reliable. In that time period, we had to deal with the "capacitor plague" infesting every manufacturer with low-grade components if they didn't keep a close eye on their supply chain or willingly pay extra for the good stuff. Japan is really big on 'Made in Japan' and mostly managed to avoid that.

ksec 5y ago

It's funny. The group of people that do not use quality in their marketing are the Japanese. You never see them using quality in their marketing. It's only the American companies that do. And yet if you ask people on the street, which products have the best reputation for quality, they will tell you the Japanese products. Now, why is that? How could that be? The answer is because customers don't form their opinions on quality from marketing. They don't form their opinions on quality from who won the Deming Award, or who won the Baldrige Award. They form their opinions on quality from their own experience with the products or the services. One can spend enormous amounts of money on quality. One can win every quality award there is. And yet if your products don't live up to it, customers will not keep that opinion for long in their minds. So, where we have to start is with our products and our services, not with our marketing department. We need to get back to the basics and go improve our products and services. - Steve Jobs

cdavid 5y ago

They also radically transformed the landscape around semiconductors in the 60ies/70ies. E.g. a big section of the famed "high output management" from Andy Grove is about how Intel had to reinvent itself under the pressure of Japanese chip makers and Intel could not compete with them. I never read a compelling explanation as to why Japanese companies started struggling w/ innovation from mid 90ies until now.

syntheweave 5y ago
Demographics. The late 20th century rise of Japan tracks with their post-war generation; the institutions built then, centered around MITI, were very strong and propelled the country into a leading exporter, and then an asset bubble economy. With the 90's, the bubble collapsed and globalization took hold, moving the industral exports increasingly towards China. But, as with the other major powers involved in the war, the institutions of the postwar largely stayed in place. The bubble then reappeared elsewhere in Asia, and then in US real estate, and eventually(where we are now) became called the "Everything Bubble", where all of these countries have a zombie company issue and a corresponding lack of creative destruction. Japan was simply the earliest to experience the demographic effects leading into this cycle; they are ahead on aging, population decline, etc.

glandium 5y ago

Back then "made in Japan" was a stamp of quality, and "made in Taiwan" denoted crap.