I don't now about Japanese manufacturing per se, but I definitely wouldn't say that finished Japanese products were considered dodgy in the 80s. Sony, Panasonic, Honda, Toyota, various camera brands, Yamaha.. I recall all of those being at least "pretty good".

I definitely remember the sense that Japanese cars posed a real threat to the American auto industry, and in hindsight that seems to have been well founded.

Nintendo! That was definitely not their reputation in the 80s it was top notch

You are right except off by couple of decades. So 60s to 80s.

Japan was making tin toys in the 60s, by the 80s, they were one of the largest car manufacturing nations and were buying out US factories.

They boomed through the 80s/90s, but then lost their edge as China moved itself up the car manufacturing hierarchy, particularly in EVs.

Same with competing with South Korea, but Japan are coasting a bit.

China is at the start of that curve.

They'll end up diversifying into the rest of the world, but the 21st century will belong to China.

>but then lost their edge as China moved itself up the car manufacturing hierarchy

Didn't they lose their edge earlier and because the US togheter with some european nations forced their arm after a trade war to limit their exports, enforce an unfavourable currency regime, etc?

In the 1980s the cars were not good.

They were not built to last so became unreliable after ~5 years.

That was because in the Japanese market five years as a long time to run a car. Not so in the west

Japanese manufacturing was dodgy in the 80’s? I don’t think so.

“What do you mean doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan”

“Unbelievable”

That's the entire point of the joke, yeah. Japanese manufacturing was dodgy in the 50s-60s but great by the 80s.

Korean manufacturing might've been considered dodgy in the 80s but great by 2000. Taiwan (ROC) went through this also (70s vs 90s, ish?). And now China.