You're right with regards to the claim that South Korea and China have lower labor costs. You're not right with regards to Japan. http://www.bls.gov/news.rele

You're right with regards to the claim that South Korea and China have lower labor costs. You're not right with regards to Japan. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ichcc.pdf http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ichcc.pdf If you have better data, I'm happy to take a look at them, but in my limited association with high-tech Japanese manufacturing this was basically the canonical example of "Ridiculously untrue things the Americans believe about us."