From: masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american,soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Japan/US comparison
Date: 10 Oct 92 23:37:34 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

In article <1b79liINNfo3@agate.berkeley.edu> robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson) writes:
>That the Japanese are gaining advances in high-tech markets every day doesn't
>say anything about their strategic front on low-tech markets, which as far
>as I'm concerned is in full retreat every day.

   It's my impression that Japan has never had such a strong front line
on "low-tech" trading market. 

>  Japanese food products are
>expensive and uncompetitive abroad, and continue to get even more so every
>year.  Which is why Japanese restaurants in the US, on average decline in
>quality every year.

   Considering the paucity of natural resources in Japan to support food
industries, I think it reasonable that Japanese food products are expensive.
I also think that Japan is not interested in competeing in the international
food market from the beginning.
   The high price of Japanese food products may not be the reason for the
decline of the quality of Japanese restaurants. If you think of sushi in the
US, rice and fish are in most cases American/Canadian products, but not 
Japanese. In order to make the US Japanese restaurants maintain the high
quality that you want, customers should be pickier. I guess most Japanese
restaurants in foreign countries are spoiled by customers who do not know
what Japanese food should be like. 

>  Since Japanese students/immigrants to the US are no longer
>willing to do unsophisticated work like being a waiter/waitress/cook, the
>management of Japanese restaurants gets completely taken over by non-Japanese
>Asians, who often do not have refined service skills.

   A good point. This also indicates that success or failure of Japanese
restaurants does not have any significant influence on Japanese economy any
longer. Actually, I doubt that it had any influence before.

>  The cost per
>plate of the stuff just keeps crashing through new ceilings, while the quality
>of other Asian cuisines in theUS improves every year & stays cheap.

   I think that there are quite a few Japanese restaurants that are struggling
for or have already obtained a reputation as a place for a sophisticated
cuisine comparable to some gorgeous French restaurants. Once they succeed to
get rid of an image of "cheap eats", the price is not always a problem.

>  Japanese
>shipping and steel manufacturing has given considerable way to Hyundai,
>such that Japanese steel mills no longer produce generic stell except for
>domestic use.  Textiles are a vanished industry, today in Thailand, PRC,
>India, and Pakistan.

  I agree to most of this.

>  No one buys Japanese toys today, not because they are
>shoddy but because the prices would drive anyone insane.

  Nintendo is driving anyone into nitendonitis, though 8-).

>  Even in electronics,
>most common goods are assembled in Malaysia or Thailand these days.

  But somehow, the goods are sold under the brand names such as SONY, Sharp, 
etc.

>  But
>once ASEAN countries all develop domestic technology, I guess Japan will
>have to move her factories to Latin America or Africa, causing more cultural
>stress all the time.

   Not necessarily as long as ASEAN coutries are happy with producing
a "SONY" Walkman and a "Sharp" microwave. 

>As far as I know, nobody's worried about a Japanese invasion of the US
>food and drink market.

   Reasonable. Japan has never tried to invade. They are busy with holding
on their own fort.

>  Japanese Sake produced by California breweries have
>been performing image/quality upgrades in the last few years.

   I'm very interested in this California Japanese sake. Have you tried it?
What is the brand name?

>  Iced coffee
>in cans is available in US supermarkets since about two years ago, for me
>taking away yet another incentive to live in J-land.

  Hey, hey. We still have "Aka-mamushi drink", though 8-).

>  Should I buy the
>"Jamaican Ice" coffee from NYC for $.99 or UCC coffee for $2.25?

  Depends on your taste 8-).   

>All of these trends suggest how Japan's economy is "hollowing out," away
>from concrete manufacturing work to abstract type of work like research or
>financing.  Is not the current worldwide recession related to the
>yen-dollar parity?  

  Maybe, it's just that people started to get real. 

>The Japan I knew 10 years ago had an authentic countryside, but these days
>with all those asphalt roads, interchanges, prefab houses, etc. etc. is
>beginning to look a lot like one not-so-giant New Jersey, minus the woods.

  Another good point. Japan definitely needs land. I wonder if the US
would sell not-so-small California. Japan could double the land...

>Well, gotta go. :)

  To a Japanese restaurant? 8-)

>Flames welcome.

  Well, I'll try next time.

>  From a self-appointed regular netter with past lives/
>reincarnations in Japan.

  Oh, Grandpa! You are here!!

Michiaki Masuda
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american