[j7ake]

Japanese culture has a particular attraction to westerners.

But it’s an illusion from marketing than reality.

It may be true that many aspects of Japanese culture are better than the American stuff, but doesn’t mean Japan has any global advantage in their fancy niche products over other countries like China, Korea, Sweden, or Switzerland.

Just as an example, the pantheon comb by a Slovakian company eclipses this “fancy” 200 dollar Japanese one.

[hilux]

The average quality of stuff is very high in Japan. That's reality, not marketing illusion.

Where the average is high, it's easy to believe that the peaks are also high - higher than in (say) China.