Why Japan Gets the Cool Stuff

haahr writes "Good article about why the coolest electronics products are available first in Japan and may never make it to the U.S., in Slate."

Comments

Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

• 4. The Japanese are more feature-conscious than price-conscious. Japanese consumers want the smallest, lightest, most feature-rich laptop they can proudly show off to their friends. ...

Interesting .. I wonder why Apple Macs haven't sold as well in Japan as they could have then? This isn't intended as flamebait, but for many years one would pay a premium to get the feature-rich Apple Macintosh, compared to the cheaper PC. Of course PCs are catching up now with newer operating systems like XP.

Re:Apple

[larry bagina]

I can't comment on current trends, but up into the mid 90s at least, Macs were quite popular in Japan (that's to say they had a larger percentage of the market than in the US). They had kanji support years ago.

I'd guess they've lost market share as Windows has improved and offered improved i18n support, as well as cooler hardware from Sony and Toshiba.

Re:Japan doesn't have a monopoly on 'cool stuff'

[SpatchMonkey]

The mobile phone network in Europe is also a lot better. Roaming, btw, just means that when you go to a different country with your phone it allows you to use the foreign networks automatically (who then bill your home provider) - actually a good feature.
It seems to me that cellphones in America are so patchy is that they have been so slow to move to GSM. But then, they have a much larger area to organise. Also, analogue is more popular and local calls are cheap/free.
Hmm, this is a bit offtopic as the discussion is about Japan. Sorry.

Hence they've been in a recession for 20 years.

[glrotate]

The Japanese economy is quite sad. A (w)hole nation of Enrons. They only hope that the can let the hot air out slowly, and that it doesn't burst.

The trend of the 80's for American companies to bring in Japanese consultants has been reversed. Japanese corporations are now bringing in American consultants to show them how to emulate American prosperity.

Re:Hence they've been in a recession for 20 years.

[Squeeze Truck]

For every Japanese company you can find who have an interest in copying American business practices, I bet I can find ten who think American practices are antisocial and, in the end, suicidal.

Not inciting hate

[PhysicsGenius]

First they came for the gadget lovers, but I garden so I didn't care
Then they came for the Japanese, but I didn't watch anime, so I didn't care...

Statements like "The Japanese are a close-minded, insular people without any of the warm, loving characteristics of Europeans." is not only false, it is dangerously close to Nazism.

It's funny you should mention that...

[rcs1000]

Not, of course, your maths: 2002 - 1991 (ignoring a few non-recession years in the middle) = 11 years...

But: I remember in 1990 discussing with an American friend of mine (I'm British) that an Economist article said that Japanese productivity growth was significantly lower than in the US.

He laughed, and told me (basically) that the US was doomed and that we would all be speaking Japanese in 10 years.

Oh how times change...

Re:It's funny you should mention that...

[Squeeze Truck]

Oh how times change...

Indeed they do. With all it's problems, I think the basics of the Japanese economy are still sound. Japan still has a better work ethic, better education and higher levels of personal scruples than the US. Plus it still has strong steel, electronics, and manufacturing capacity. And don't forget that it lends far more money than it borrows.

So what if Japan can't survive forever as an exporter of electronic bric-brac to the US? I still think in the long term that it's in better shape than the US. Maybe a powerful China can be our new main trading partner.

Re:Isn't it obvious?

[kurtz25]

Uhh, I have about 10 kids in my school here who were born Brazillian and whose families have moved to Japan and become citizens. Additionally, I have 2 Korean-born kids. And finally, there was the dust up in Hokkaido between Debito (David) Arado, the Japanese citizen from Canada (I believe) vs. the local public bath owners. People move here all the time, and the citizenry requirements are not really that strict anymore. You're thinking of like 30 years ago. Oh, and their computers... are... on topic.

Military spending

[alnya]

Sorry to be naive, but isn`t the reason that the Japanese electronics industry (and infrastructure) is so advanced is becuase of the terms of the VJ-day treaty, which prohibits Japan from ANY military R spending. SO that all the guys who would have made weapons of mass destruction work for Sony, et al? The same level of R that has been put into Military uses in the US and UK has been piled into gadgetry in Japan. Similarly, their infrastructure is so advanced becuase the government has speant nothing on defence in over 50 years.

Just my $0.02

alnya

Roaming

[SgtChaireBourne]

Roaming may have been one of the keys to cell phone adoption in Europe -- the whole country is your zone. No point in buying a cell phone unless you can use it while travelling. Otherwise, you'll be near your regular phone, plus maybe a wireless handset. In the U.S. Chicago, IL and Madison, WI are probably in different roaming areas. Shoot, maybe even San Diego, CA and San Francisco, CA are in different zones. Odds are it's cheaper there with a pager and a payphone. Also, the screwed up choice of frequencies in the U.S. means that European and Japanese manufacturers have to make a special model just for the U.S.

Perhaps Japanese cell phones work in all of Japan and perhaps even at the same price. Japanese companies are pretty good about responding to what sells, so this would make sense.