It's a dilemma. We want to imitate others, but we can't change our identity. And in terms of business, the Japanese are still very old-fashioned. Each company has its own way, and they have a very hard time taking chances with capital ventures. In the future, though, Japanese companies will have to experiment, to give up their mechanistic approach and try new things.
Data symbolizes the way the Japanese people have to be willing to change in order to succeed.
One of the weirdest pleasures I've experienced in Japan, in fact, has been watching the show dubbed into Japanese. You flip a switch to decide which version you want to hear. They're so good that I could actually tell which character was speaking even without looking at the screen. That's a stunning achievement. Riker is suitably rakish, Troi sultry, Worf the perfect samurai.