[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by acjama

What do you think when you see "Made in Japan"? Is it a sign of quality, or something else?

At the very least, it`s a sign that it`s better quality that most of the other options. Certainly better than "Made in China".

Have you driven a Toyota lately?

I even bought one after the uproar in the US... Which, to be quite honest, I still doubt to be anything other than an unfortunate mat-slip incident followed by a LOT of people trying to cash in.

Play online games with Sony and gambling with your identity (and eternal soul)?

Sony has never been "quality". Quite the opposite of it, really. They`ve been using cheap outsourced parts for years - there is very little that is "made" by Sony, and a lot that is "cast off parts from other makers that is assembled by Sony". It was no surprise that they screwed up even more.

Eaten any raw beef in Japanese restaurants and actually survived?

Regularly, in fact. ;D

Have you sat on a porch lately, listening to crickets while drinking Shizuoka green tea in the warm light of it's Cherenkov radiation?

No, but I would LOVE to so a photo of someone else doing so.

Even Japanese companies are shying away from domestic subcontractors for electronics, metalworks and optics (that I'm aware of).

When it comes to optics, Japan has always held foreign... German, I think? Optics as higher quality than Japanese. This is a weird wall for Japanese companies involved in optics. It has been shown that Japanese producers can make equal quality faster and for a lower cost - but still companies will choose European. I believe that there is a belief in the industry that as Japanese optics are not all that well known, being able to say that the optics were made in Germany instills a further confidence in the customer. This is a spiral of sorts, which leads to people assuming that if the Japanese companies aren`t choosing the optics from their own country there must be something wrong with them (or at the very least, the others are of higher quality if even the Japanese are choosing them) so there is little hope for the companies that do have excellent quality...
Branding - it`s power is amazing.

All this is bound to show on the quality of products. Have you noticed it? Do you buy because it's "Made in Japan", or do you leave it in the shelves for the same reason?

What is the other option?
That is the big question.
I most certainly am not going to avoid Japanese made products... And in most cases I don`t think there is even a decent option if I did. Even if Japanese quality falls, it isn`t as if it is going to be worse than "Made in China".