3 ms·

Postwar Japan was a different beast for quite a while. Weird Al Yankovic's line "don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan" was what parents used to

Postwar Japan was a different beast for quite a while. Weird Al Yankovic's line "don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan" was what parents used to guilt their kids into eating until Biafra happened. A "Made in Japan" joke was funny in the '50s and '60s because it was true, for the most part. "Toyota" was a word that to most people meant "poor bugger couldn't even afford a Beetle". My '71 Datsun (Nissan) pickup could barely reach highway speed (although it did have a sort of tractor-like utility about it) and I don't think there was a single original body panel left on it by '79. But the cameras weren't bad. And then the "miniature" electronics (a radio you could put in your pocket!) happened. It took a while to get back up to speed. Now people look for "Made in Japan" as a sign of quality instead of a warning.

mikeash 13y ago
There's a classic (and probably apocryphal) story about this, from the time when Japan was just starting to turn things around. I can't locate it (even though I'm sure it's out there) so I'll paraphrase and retype: Back in the dark ages, when computers filled rooms and devoured power, IBM decided to take a risk and try outsourcing some electronics manufacturing to Japan to see how it would go. They put out bids with full specs and also specified a 3% defect rate, which was considered aggressively low at the time. They found a willing Japanese supplier and manufacturing began. Some months later, the parts arrived in big crates. The IBM people cracked open the first one to find their parts inside, but some of them were off to the side in a separate compartment. A note was attached. "Dear sirs: our cultural differences make it so that we have difficulty understanding some of your requests, but we have done our best to do what you have asked. Here are the 3% defective parts as you requested, packaged separately for your convenience."
w1ntermute 13y ago
> Postwar Japan was a different beast for quite a while. Weird Al Yankovic's line "don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan" was what parents used to guilt their kids into eating until Biafra happened. Sure, but that was largely due to the effects of WW2. Children were also starving in Germany and the UK in the postwar era. In reality, Japan modernized in the late 1800s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_restoration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_restoration
- stan_rogers 13y ago
  I believe that was implied, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned "postwar" in response to what Japan was pre-war.

mikeash 13y ago

There's a classic (and probably apocryphal) story about this, from the time when Japan was just starting to turn things around. I can't locate it (even though I'm sure it's out there) so I'll paraphrase and retype: Back in the dark ages, when computers filled rooms and devoured power, IBM decided to take a risk and try outsourcing some electronics manufacturing to Japan to see how it would go. They put out bids with full specs and also specified a 3% defect rate, which was considered aggressively low at the time. They found a willing Japanese supplier and manufacturing began. Some months later, the parts arrived in big crates. The IBM people cracked open the first one to find their parts inside, but some of them were off to the side in a separate compartment. A note was attached. "Dear sirs: our cultural differences make it so that we have difficulty understanding some of your requests, but we have done our best to do what you have asked. Here are the 3% defective parts as you requested, packaged separately for your convenience."

w1ntermute 13y ago

> Postwar Japan was a different beast for quite a while. Weird Al Yankovic's line "don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan" was what parents used to guilt their kids into eating until Biafra happened. Sure, but that was largely due to the effects of WW2. Children were also starving in Germany and the UK in the postwar era. In reality, Japan modernized in the late 1800s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_restoration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_restoration

stan_rogers 13y ago
I believe that was implied, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned "postwar" in response to what Japan was pre-war.