>Wages have gone up, and are equal to or higher than those in the US and Europe, and like those countries, they have tried to cut costs by shifting manufacturing overseas, which has resulted in a decline in quality.

It didn't hurt their auto manufacturing industry. Japan has moved some manufacturing to America and their cars still remain at the top of any car site list just as they have always been.

>Complaints of unfair trade eventually forced Japan to open their domestic market to overseas competition.

The complaints were true just as the ones leveraged against China now.

While you may have given a very detailed response, the truth was that Japanese never cared about as much about software as they should have.

The situation has become so dire in Japan that Sony is making phones, at least on par with Samsung, but cannot sell them in their own country due to perception. It's a consequence of a reputation that has been degrading for a decade.

I'd argue that Japanese culture has changed dramatically in the "Nintendo" era. It's one that left behind the tradition of their own culture to adopt Western values while many Western tech companies today base their values upon that same tradition.