Hacker News Reader

Comment by zwayhowder | Hacker News Reader

Go to Japan. A number of Panasonic, Fujitsu & Sony laptops are made there that are only ever sold in the domestic market because of the high costs. Though for the build quality they are still not too bad in terms of value.

Of course their displays and RAM are probably made in Korea or China as are the SSDs and I've never pulled one apart to check the motherboard and battery providence...

However they are definitely assembled in Japan.

View on HN

Japan's economy fascinates me. The vast majority of the cars you see on the roads, computers in offices, TVs in hotel rooms, cameras in people's hands etc are Japanese. Amazing self-sufficiency in a world where globalisation is becoming the norm. Japanese-made products are also pretty universally considered to be very well designed and built, too.

  It would have been fascinating to study Japan in the 80's, but now really sure they are still "self-sufficient." 

  Japan's auto industry is still strong, but their future largely depends on impending trade deal with Trump. Their tech/semiconductor industry has been in decline the past 30 years and what little remains today are being sold to Chinese/Taiwanese companies bit by bit. Japanese brands like SONY or Panasonic now accounts for less than 10% of the US market now, replaced by mostly Koreans like Samsung and LG in high-end, and by Chinese by TCL in low-end markets. The consumer camera business is still dominated by Japanese companies, but the business itself is in a crisis as the market, which peaked in 2013, continues to dive by 30% - 60% annually last several years.

To make this comment readable on mobile:

It would have been fascinating to study Japan in the 80's, but now really sure they are still "self-sufficient."

Japan's auto industry is still strong, but their future largely depends on impending trade deal with Trump. Their tech/semiconductor industry has been in decline the past 30 years and what little remains today are being sold to Chinese/Taiwanese companies bit by bit. Japanese brands like SONY or Panasonic now accounts for less than 10% of the US market now, replaced by mostly Koreans like Samsung and LG in high-end, and by Chinese by TCL in low-end markets. The consumer camera business is still dominated by Japanese companies, but the business itself is in a crisis as the market, which peaked in 2013, continues to dive by 30% - 60% annually last several years.

Yeah raw materials and parts just fall magically out of the sky, as long as you do the final assembly (and sometimes not even that, sometimes only packaging a product is needed for "made in x") yourself then you are self-reliant.

No need for the heavy sarcasm - why not just point out the nebulousness of what 'Made in [Country]' means or provide some sources that give a more detailed look at Japan's manufacturing base so we all don't need to make assumptions?

The RAM is fabbed in either South Korea (SK Hynix or Samsung) or the US (Micron), but Sharp, JDI, and to a lesser extent Panasonic still fab LCDs in Japan (though like the DRAM packaging, the display module assembly process may be in China).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com