jimmy@icjapan.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) (06/26/90)
irvine@ecn.pudue.edu (Brent the Grate) writes: > I have heard that the quality of consumer goods manufactured > in Japan is different for 'export' and 'dometic' consumption. > Specifically, foreign consumers get a slightly better quality > product than Japanese. > Can this be true? This is definitely true in telephone instruments, a field I'm well-acquainted with. The single-line telephones sold here by such big names as Hitachi and Sony are complete pieces of junk. They aren't much better than the free phone you get for ordering Time Magazine. But this is one of those areas where the Japanese consumer seems to feel that form rather than function is important. The phones on the market here definitely look nice. But no thought seems to be put into designing them to work well. Note, for example, that the Panasonic KX series of phones and answering machines that are some of the best anywhere are not sold in Japan. In an article dankg@tornado.berkeley.edu (Dan KoGai) writes: >Give the Japanese "Consumer Reports" and "60 Minutes". I bet their >attitude will change [in a] matter of days... Which brings up a good point, and that is that Japan doesn't seem to even have a magazine like "Consumer Reports" that they can turn to for unbiased advice. I guess the zaibatu (big conglomerates) wouldn't like that :-). I wonder why this is. The magazine "Trendy" does however give price comparisons between brands and stores and even includes prices from the U.S., often showing the Japanese consumer how far they are being taken to the cleaners. Jim Gottlieb Info Connections, Tokyo, Japan <jimmy@pic.ucla.edu> or <jimmy@denwa.info.com> or <attmail!denwa!jimmy> Fax: +81 3 237 5867 Voice Mail: +81 3 222 8429