this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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Backwater? Growing power?

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Same thing happened with Japan.

This is before my time but I've known lots of older people who born in the 50s and grew up in the 60s and 70s.

Products made in Japan were once considered cheap things. I ride motorcycles so I talk to a lot of people about the history, especially with Honda and Yamaha. North American motorcycles were first British, German and American. When the Japanese started in the 50s and 60s, everyone laughed at them ... a common racist thing to call them back then was 'rice cookers' ... but within a decade, they took over and by the 80s they were dominating.

The same thing is happening in the EV market. Right now everything is even and the market is still new. But in a decade or two or less, the Chinese will dominate everything.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

In the late '80s, I remember people being pissed at Japan as its economy looked to overtake that of the US. They felt somehow betrayed because the US, and its monetary policy, had helped Japan get to where it was. With the effects of the Plaza Accord and following things, Japan's bubble would pop. In something young me could never imagine, I've been living in Japan a decade now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I learned about that from Back to the Future.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Meh, the plaza accords get the credit, but their real estate bubble was massive anyway.

China seems to have just walked past their real estate bubble, that's actually really impressive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Real estate in China is atrocious

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Postwar Japan motorcycles were literally old Harley Davidson toolings. They weren’t that good to begin with.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (6 children)

But Japan won by heavily improving the quality and reliability of their products, and that's not what China is doing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Sure, China is still "the production zone of the world", but China is making Afrika "the productiontion zone of China"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

That's not true at all, China makes both high quality and incredibly cheep at the same time. Look at brands like Anker, Ecoflow, Hisense, Xiaomi, Dji, Lenovo, Chery, BYD, etc

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

A market China has grown it's share in quite a lot is EVs. Their main competitor is the US-based Tesla, which is known to have huge reliability issues. I'd say don't throw stones from glass houses?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Nah man.

Chinese automotive tools are improving massively (Harbor Freight ICON is amazing for the price) and the electronic diagnostic stuff is streets ahead of any place else for the cost.

Chinese watches are really coming up. Sugess is beating the hell out of Japanese watches (using a Seiko movement) and the in-country movements are nearing parity.

RISC-V: 'nuff said.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I mean, they are, but not in the way you'd think.

They don't care much about quality, but they have the data (the critical part) to improve quality anyway, with a fraction of the zealous dedication Japan applied.

A database that shows 1 part always fails for a specific reason is hard to argue against, just change that part.

Technology makes innovation easier.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

Can you support that argument?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Not gonna lie though. The honda cub looked all kinds of fun as a buzz around bike. Nothing to prove, just 'here is a little city road burner.