Japanese products have great core technology but where they lack is the “user experience” (UX) and the human/machine interface. It’s a common theme running through a lot of Japanese designed products..whether it’s a website, cameras, consumer electronics or anything — the user interface ranges from poor to horrible. The Japanese don’t think it’s worth putting in time, effort and money to improving the user experience.
The waterfall engineering method works terribly for software. Sony could have been Apple, but they went over the waterfall.