The WTF Japan thread

MacGuffin said:
Do you really believe there wouldn't be decent electronics, if the Japanese weren't there? Lots of decent electronics disappeared, because the Japanese are there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but they disappeared because the Japanese could do the same thing for cheaper and they could make more reliable stuff. Thus, I'd still have them do their thing. As long as I can listen to something other than J-Pop on my cheap and good Japanese wi-fi, don't really care that they make some weird music.
 
toma_alimosh said:
Yeah, but they disappeared because the Japanese could do the same thing for cheaper and they could make more reliable stuff.
Click to expand...

No. Definitely no. The reason they got the upper hand, is they had a fancy design, with lots of funny lighs and colourful LED's on their stuff. Back in the 80's -- when the battle was decided -- the inner qualities of mass market hifi components from Japan was poor. For example their amplifiers all had very cheap power supplies to reduce freight costs (power supply = weight).

I lived through those times and I saw what happened. The "old" hifi makers tried to cling on quality but lost ground, because they suddenly had become "uncool" with the youth. It started with the Walkman. Just because of the Walkman the brand Sony suddenly became cool. It had nothing to do with quality and almos everything with clever marketing and being faster than the competition, when it came to new gadgets.
If the Japanese were generally superior with their products, then why do you think the world market for high-priced high end hifi components is still completely dominated by European and American manufacturers? Also until today the Japanese are still far behind with high quality loudspeakers -- the most difficult hifi component to make. That market is also still dominated by European and American producers.

Young people rarely look for real quality in what they buy. Brand image and being cool and trendy is more important for them, than quality. And the electronics market is ruled by what young people think is cool and therefore buy. Only when people get older, they also look for real value in what they buy. Hasn't changed until today, btw.

Clever marketing is the main factor. That's where most European brands failed. And because they were too slow in their reactions to the new threat from the East. Of the big brands in Europe only Philips survived.

By the way: The most profitable hifi maker in the world is Bose -- an American company. Their stuff is utter crap, though, they use the cheapest materials available and are completely overpriced but they have the best marketing experts and simply replaced real quality with boldness. Works for them, it seems.
 
Last edited:
MacGuffin said:
No. Definitely no. The reason they got the upper hand, is they had a fancy design, with lots of funny lighs and colourful LED's on their stuff. Back in the 80's -- when the battle was decided -- the inner qualities of mass market hifi components from Japan was poor. For example their amplifiers all had very cheap power supplies to reduce freight costs (power supply = weight).

I lived through those times and I saw what happened. The "old" hifi makers tried to cling on quality but lost ground, because they suddenly had become "uncool" with the youth. It started with the Walkman. Just because of the Walkman the brand Sony suddenly became cool. It had nothing to do with quality and almos everything with clever marketing and being faster than the competition, when it came to new gadgets.
If the Japanese were generally superior with their products, then why do you think the world market for high-priced high end hifi components is still completely dominated by European and American manufacturers? Also until today the Japanese are still far behind with high quality loudspeakers -- the most difficult hifi component to make. That market is also still dominated by European and American producers.

Young people rarely look for real quality in what they buy. Brand image and being cool and trendy is more important for them, than quality. And the electronics market is ruled by what young people think is cool and therefore buy. Only when people get older, they also look for real value in what they buy. Hasn't changed until today, btw.

Clever marketing is the main factor. That's where most European brands failed. And because they were too slow in their reactions to the new threat from the East. Of the big brands in Europe only Philips survived.

By the way: The most profitable hifi maker in the world is Bose -- an American company. Their stuff is utter crap, though, they use the cheapest materials available and are completely overpriced but they have the best marketing experts and simply replaced real quality with boldness. Works for them, it seems.
Click to expand...

Hold on here. I'm talking about reliability and cheap cost, you're talking about build quality and quality of components. These aren't necessarily interchangeable. You can make something with cheaper components and still have it be reliable (up to a point). I'm also talking about electronics in general, especially consumer electronics, not professional, and not only sound systems.

And, fair enough, the market for high-end and professional amplifiers and speakers also stayed in the west, but the things behind those PA systems actually making the sounds ... the CD players, the equalizers, compression drivers, etc. Are a 50-50 market, sometimes leaning on the Japanese side. As for regular, consumer products, Bose and their counterparts are behind on what most people buy for their home stereo, because they can't make their systems with the same cost and quality as the Japanese. They CAN compete on marketing, and they could have too, especially when they were the market leaders, but the costs drove them into the ground. The Japanese methods of production are the model for most businesses today for a reason: they can make something quicker and more efficiently, thus for a lower cost, and they can go into a price battle and innovation battle with manufacturers from other countries.

Mind you, today we're seeing the trend where the Japanese themselves are being overtaken somewhat by the Koreans, who just build stuff cheaply, with disregard for reliability, but hey... there's a market for that as well.

So, unfortunately for the western companies, they wanted to stick with the high-end market, which turned out to be a very small, "niche" market, and lost.
In the end, the battle for the market was lost because western workers were not comfortable with changing their working habits and becoming more productive for the same wages, while the Japanese were not as fussy. Which is the same reason why almost all manufacturing of the western companies went to China ... western workers can't handle the kind of conditions necessary to do what needs to be done. American car manufacturers are still plagued by this. Workers hide behind unions and the knowledge that moving the factory to a foreign location is financially devastating and you have people working less than regular hours, for $80-120k per year, and they're being paid that much to screw in a bolt.
 
I don't know where to begin, so I won't even start.
 
Reason why japan is so clean!

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2010/09/11/babymop_weird_invention.jpg

Reason why japanese people are so thin!
https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2010/09/11/3933_dietwater.jpg
 
jedd_kenobi said:
They could look at Lady Gaga and just as easily say "weirdness overload" in japanese.
Click to expand...
Oh absolutely, I'd go along chanting it in German (my native language) about her if someone came up with a decent translation. :lol:

Weird doesn't necessarily mean bad anyway.

As for the electronics, I'm a sucker for B&O - used, but hey. You've got to start somewhere and the Japanese won't hurt them in a hurry.
 
Last edited:
It doesn't get much more WTF than this:





And saving the best for last:
[video=youtube;l-4WbjV1Jmo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-4WbjV1Jmo&feature=related[/video]
 
I had some of this the other day. I think the origin is Japan:

hawaii_pocari_sweat.jpg


Tasted kinda salty actually.
 
Skittles makes it awesome. Like a double rainbow.
 
captain_70s said:
Anyone remember that video that appeared on the boards a few months ago? An animated thing, pink background with a load of weird shit like a flying bear riding a tricycle. Somebody had it as their avatar for a while...
Click to expand...

2billion. Still does, I think. All I remember is a kokoro-filled acid trip.
 
All I can think of is bananas.
 
captain_70s said:
Anyone remember that video that appeared on the boards a few months ago? An animated thing, pink background with a load of weird shit like a flying bear riding a tricycle. Somebody had it as their avatar for a while...
Click to expand...


2Billion said:
I will now explain my old bear with a guitar avatar:

[video=youtube;BleRSTZ7CpQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BleRSTZ7CpQ[/video]

If anyone can make me one with the bear on the tricycle I will be appreciative. Or possibly the man in the ceiling. Really there are a million avatar possibilities here.
Click to expand...
 
calvinhobbes said:
For curiosity's sake, I'd love to know what perfectly mundane things we in the West do the Japanese think of as weird.
Click to expand...

  • Wearing a pair of shorts below your ass
  • NASCAR
  • Internet memes
  • Hipsters
  • Shooting ranges
  • Burning man
  • Hummers
  • Tea Parties
  • Westboro Baptists
  • The Folsom Street Fair

A very American-biased list, but I'm more familiar with the US than with European cultures (I'm sure there's plenty of strange German and British things that others can mention). A lot of the list certainly isn't "mundane", but I doubt most of the Japanese stuff in this thread is considered normal over there, either. :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top