Why are Japanese products considered to be good and reliable? What makes them different from other countries’ products?

Kaizen. It’s a japanese philosophy referring to ‘continuous improvement’. This is the reason why Japanese products are so reliable and continue to be so reliable; because Japanese obsessively make continuous refinements to their products. This differs from Western philosophies which is to make better products for the next cycle, or to just rely on getting it right the first time (Germany).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcBXtwGexNchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LfbsW-5tAk

Whenever Japanese see flaws they try to improve on it right away. You’ll often see mid model cycle revisions and improvements to their products, often without much fanfare or advertisement at all. They have even kept improving parts to their products even after they get discontinued.

What I have seen from Japanese companies is:

• Continuous refinement to their products. They know a product can always be improved. This contrasts with Western companies where they often release a product that they think is ‘good enough’ and stop there, or wait until the next release cycle to release a better product.
• More money spent on R&D, less money spent on advertising. This is why most Japanese products tend to be low key. They often do not pay for celebrity endorsements or advertisements. This contrasts with Western companies who spend substantially more percentage of their budge on marketing and advertisement and celebrity endorsements.
• Focus on reliability and functionality over features. They focus on making existing features of a product work as well as it should rather than introducing some new feature and marketing and advertising the hell out of it like Western companies do.
• Japanese companies are less prone to milking or ‘nickel and diming’ as much as Western companies. This is related to Japanese customer first mindset.
• Japanese products are expensive because of craftsmanship and materials. Not because they need to make back a % of their marketing budget. What I’m saying is the profit margins are much higher for Western companies because they spent less on making the products and more on advertising and yet still charge premium prices.

In general I think Japanese products are very good and reliable, in fact I actually can’t think of the last time a Japanese product failed on me. The main issue with Japanese products is that because they don’t advertise or market much, as a result they are not popular with mainstream consumers and when mainstream consumers see the premium prices of Japanese products they balk at paying for them. Meanwhile they buy expensive Western brands because they were duped by the marketing. In addition Japanese products have a hard time competing with cheaper Chinese and Korean products. This results in lower sales for Japanese products and unfortunately to many Japanese brands exiting the global market.

-Had a Panasonic plasma TV that has lasted for a good 13 years so far and still going. Meanwhile I’ve bought Samsung TVs and LG Monitors that have display issues, brightness issues, lines going across the display and defects like that within a year of having them.

-Had 3 Sony Xperia phones (Z3 compact, XZ1 compact, 5 IV) none of them have ever failed. Meanwhile I’ve had 2 Google Pixels where the microphone malfunctioned, a Samsung Z Flip 3 where the microphone died, Samsung Z Fold 4 where the hinge broke, etc

-Have a Rotel amplifier for 6 years and a Yamaha amplifier for 5 years and both going strong. Bought a LEAK amplifier (UK brand) not long ago, broke within 6 months (left channel volume imbalance).

-Had Denon and Audio Technica headphones for many years no issues. Bought a Sennheiser HD800s ($1600 headphone) and the earpads deteriorated within 2 years and needed replacement (which can only be bought from Sennheiser for an extremely high price).

-Owned PS3, PS4, PS5. No issues with any of them. Xbox 360? Constant red ring of death issues. Went through at least 3 different xbox 360s and all had this issue.

-Owned Sony VAIO laptops which never had any issues. Meanwhile owned a Dell Inspiron with overheating issues, HP Elitebook with overheating issues etc

-My whole family have owned Honda and Acura cars. Honda Fit, Honda Civic, Acura MDX and I own a Honda PCX scooter before. No issues with any of them. Meanwhile previously we’ve had multiple Ford cars that broke down constantly. My friends all have BMWs that all suffer from constant maintenance issues, coolant leaking, trunk opening by itself, etc

lots of examples where Japanese products I’ve owned have not failed but had issues with competing non japanese products…