Quote:
Originally Posted by Sitron
Back in the 90s Japanese goods used to be "in". Now everyone thing cool that's not from North America is either Taiwanese or Korean. If I want a good and somewhat cheap computer or laptop I buy Asus or maybe even Acer (both from Taiwan) - if I want a cool cell phone I'll either go with HTC (Taiwan) or maybe even Samsung (Korea). Japanese cell phones are a freaking joke. They look so outdated. And everything from computers to screens that are made by Japanese companies I can get just as good (if not better) cheaper from Taiwanese and Korean companies?
WTF happened to Japanese innovation?
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Korea aside, when you have manufacturing coming from countries that produce generally sub standard products by employing armies of unskilled workers way below the poverty line then, yes you can get a cheaper product from China. But let's not forget that due to current WTO regulations, of which China is not a signatory, China's theft of Japanese technology is illegal. There is almost no innovation coming from China, they generally jump on the back of Japanese innovation and produce a cut price and almost always sub standard version. Take the recent theft of Shinkansen technology from Kawazaki motors as a common example.
Eventually China's economy is going to grow to such an extent whereby they have more and more skilled workers and there won't be many who will want to work in Chinese factories, this is already beginning to happen around the major cities. A further problem is that China, despite international pressure, is keeping it's currency price artificially low. This allows it make a very high volume of cut price exports; lowering the price of exports and hence bolstering the manufacturing sector. However, due to their rapid growth they will eventually be forced, by both internal and external pressures, to more realistically re-evaluate their own economy. Having done this the price of manufacturing will rise dramatically and those manufacturers wishing to continue to produce things cut price will move their operations to any number of smaller competing countries.
In the civilian market, Japan, however suffering from a downturning international and a strong yen, remains the center of international technological innovation.