Why is it so rare today to find Electronics, made in Japan?

[MrCoyote]

I first posted this in the Video thread, but thought it belongs here better...
Not that it really matters I guess, where my next monitor is made, as long as the screen looks good and I have no problems with it, but...

I've looked at numerous brands of monitors here in USA, and none are made in Japan. Even Sony monitors are made in Mexico. At least all of the ones shipped to the USA. Other monitors I looked at were made in China, Thailand, Korea, etc. Throughout the 1980's, the U.S. market was flooded by very high quality electronics made in Japan. But now it is rare to find anything electronic made in Japan! Does anyone know why? Is it because it's cheaper to make in the other countries? Or is it because Japan is a very small land-mass country with a lot of population, and there is no room for industrial buildings and growth?

I must add, that I respect the other countries too that make electronics, because it looks like the USA is last in technology because all we can make ourselves are food and personal goods like hairspray, deoderant, and things like this.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Labor is cheaper in the countries you listed.

 

[ManSnake]

Same technology cheaper labor, why not move production there to save a few bucks??

 

[bhungy]

too expensive to produce in Japan, labor cost is high and so is the properties.

 

[Thanatopsis]

Kinda OT, but are there any major American Electronics companies left? The only ones I can think of are Pioneer and RCA, and I'm not even sure they are American anymore.

 

[Shazam]

Pioneer is Japanese.

RCA is owned by either Hyundai or Samsung now, IIRC.

Panasonic still makes stuff in Japan... They make a big out of it (which is not entirely unwarranted, btw).

 

[bunker]

Isn't Zenith still American?

Never mind, just read they were bought by LG Electronics in 1999

 

[notfred]

<< Kinda OT, but are there any major American Electronics companies left? The only ones I can think of are Pioneer and RCA, and I'm not even sure they are American anymore. >>



Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Micron, Creative Labs, 3COM, who else makes parts for your box?

 

[duke]

Creative Labs is based in Singapore.

 

[duke]

Manufacturing goes where labor is cheap. In the past, it was common to find high quality electronic products made in the US. Then manufacturing shifted to Japan. And now to China, Mexico, Malaysia, etc... And it'll shift again in the future.

 

[1967mustangman]

Japan seems to have moved full steam into the R&amp;D market and has left the manufacture market. As they move more and more toward having an extremly profitable economy they can not afford to pay pruduction wages so those jobs move somewhere else.

 

[soapdish]

Hate to break it to you,


But from what I heard, the last electronics manufacturer in the US was...



SYLVANIA!


Anyone remember the Sylvania Superset? (Note: Spelling of Sylvania might be incorrect)

 

[soapdish]

Well...


They ain't US anymore!


So that leaves a whopping 0 US electronics manufacturers...


So, Just what the hell is it we do over here?


We can't all be working at Wendy's?

 

[bunker]

We still make most of our cars here. Granted, it's starting to shift to Mexico for some of them, but most are still made here.

 

[Pretender]

We (US, Japan, etc) design the electronics, then we send the specs to china to produce them. *cough*cheaplabor*cough*.

 

[MrCoyote]

hmm...I always heard AMD made their chips up here in Austin, but all the chips I've seen say &quot;Assembled in Malaysia&quot;. I can't see how it would be cheaper to process the silicon wafers in Texas, and then have to ship the &quot;fragile&quot; wafers to another company to be assembled, and then back again to the U.S. and other countries. You would think if they process and design the chips here, that they could also set up a plant to assemble them.

 

[AmitPatel]

My 1999 Honda Accord is made in Japan and that's pretty rare, almost all are built here in the US.