There were QC, control and availability issues with Japanese aerial radios throughout the war. They had radios, but they didn’t always work, they weren’t easy to use and they couldn’t trust them.
References here: http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/gregspringer/radios/radio_systems.htm
"...The greatest problem encountered was that of correctly installing the radios with proper wiring, shielding and grounding of the equipment. It seems that little attention was devoted to this problem until late in the war. Insufficient shielding of the ignition system of the aircraft caused interference with reception of signals to a great degree, as did static charges generated by the passage of the airframe through the atmosphere. It seems that there were very few officers at fighter group level who were familiar with radio systems or who cared to conduct effective programs to maintain them. The resulting poor performance quickly led fighter pilots to cease using the radios and resort to the old visual methods. In the case of some land-based groups, they removed all radio equipment to enhance the performance of the planes..."
That made complete sense. It sounds like they made the radios in a vacuum where they were simply handed to the aircraft manufacturer who shoehorned them in somewhere, and did it poorly. No shielding! That must have been frustrating in the extreme, especially to a culture that viewed them as a flimsy impediment towards fulfilling their manly Bushido code.
We had somewhat the same attitude towards radar directed naval gunfire, but Admiral Willis "Ching" Lee made his peers see the light, especially after the terrible defeat at Savo Island opened their minds to anything that could help.
Thanks, that was one of the most interesting war-related things I have read in a while, and that makes complete sense.