[jpsb]

I have heard rumors that Asian technology was better then ours but not having seen it with my own eyes I declined to use it in my arguments about off-shoring manufacturing and R&D. When you give your R&D away you give EVERYTHING away, and it appears that is exactly what we are doing. We are eating our seeds. The future looks very dim for our children, we are leaving them nothing.

[XBob]

Japan has long been an 'insular' market, and Akihabara is a very typical reflection of it.

It is here, The Japanese 'test run' small quantities, and perfect their machines/products before subjecting them to the massive production and markets of the world, particularly the US.

Akihabara is the beginning and the end of the life cycle of many products. For example, I remember a radio as a keychain fob I bought there in 1970 which never made it out of Akihabara, and a 1/2 frame camera design in the 60's which did. I also remember bargaining very hard in the early-mid 1970's to buy one of the very earliest LCD calculators, and getting it for $30, then coming home 6 months later and seeing it advertized in a big ad at Nieman-Marcus for $29.95.

It's an interesting place, but this info on their advanced products is nothing new.